Nurses' knowledge and practice regarding care of patients undergoing chest tube

Chest tube is a postoperative therapeutic intervention widely applied to the respiratory tract and cardiothoracic care. -Aim: To assess nurses’ knowledge and practice regarding care of patients undergoing chest tube. Design: A descriptive exploratory study design was used _Setting: Intensive Care Unit, Surgical and Operational Departments, in El-Mahalla Chest Hospital, and El-Mahalla Cardiac Center. Sample: A convenient sample of all available nurses (60 nurses) who work with patient undergoing chest tube. Tools: 1) Self-administered interview questionnaire consists of two parts part 1: Nurse’s demographic data characteristics, part 2: Nurse’s knowledge about chest tube. Tool 2) Observational checklist. Results: Findings of the present study showed that more than one third of the studied nurses had average knowledge regarding management of patient with chest tube drainage. While one third and less than one quarterbof them had poor and good knowledge, respectively. Conclusion: the majority of the studied nurses had insufficient knowledge and practice regarding management of patient with chest tube drainage. Recommendations: Development of in-service training programs to maintain efficient performance of nurses Replication of the study on a larger sample and in different geographical areas in Egypt for generalization of findings