Assess Knowledge and Practice Eye Care for Patients of Intensive Care Unit Nursing Staff

Eye care for intensive care unit (ICU) patients is still flawed as surface eye diseases are reported to be frequent in these patients. As nurses focus on saving patients, this process has been easily overlooked. This researcher proceeded with this study to initially evaluate the current knowledge and practice of ICU nursing care and create a proposal to develop a standardized procedure for eye care for patients in the ICU. The sample in this study consisted of 14 female nurses working at Becamex International Hospital. The data collection took place during a one-week period. The educational program was conducted twice a week so all nurses could attend the training. The training time was about 90 minutes including pretest, the researcher’s presentation, questions from nurses, discussion, and posttest. The mean age of nurses was 27 years with a range from 23 to 34 years. Education level was reflected 21.4% the diploma nurse level, 36.7% at the associate nurse level, and 42.9% at the Bachelor of Science in Nursing level. Thirteen (92.9%) of the nurses reported caring for 12 patients per shift. Worthy of note was 92.9% (n = 13) of the nurses reported having no previous eye training courses. The educational intervention significantly increased the nurse’s knowledge about eye care in the ICU environment. All of the ICU nurse participants thought eye care was an important part of nursing care and thought there were clear expectations for eye care practices; however, nurses did not have an eye care protocol to follow. Indeed, a majority of participants (71.4%) reported eye complications had occurred on patients. A barrier to eye care practice was lack of education, which accounted for 75% of participants. After the education program, the participants were satisfied with the education program overall and all nurses indicated plans to change existing eye care practices. The sample size was relatively small, which meant the results of the study would be only relevant and applicable to the study participants. The results were seen to be consistent with previous educational intervention studies that increased nurses’ knowledge about eye care in the ICU. The findings of this study suggested the need for the development of an eye care practice guideline for ICU patients