Nurses’ Knowledge Levels About Port Catheter Care (POCATH Study): a study of the palliative care working committee of the Turkish Oncology Group (TOG)

Year 2017, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 75 - 79, 30.06.2017

Ali Alkan

https://doi.org/10.5799/jcei.333384

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate nurses’ levels of knowledge about port
catheters (PCs), define factors effecting them and to define the subjects in which more education
strategies should be developed.
Patients and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out in cancer centers in
Turkey. Participants were evaluated with structured questionnaires to assess the levels of
knowledge about PCs and management strategies of PC related complications. The questions
were designed to evaluate their knowledge in different subscales.
Results: 363 nurses in 7 cancer centers in 4 different cities in Turkey participated in the study.
While 147 (40.5%) nurses had a more than 10 years of experience, 13.8% of them had a less
than 1 year of job experience in oncology. Knowledge about “Port catheter usage and
complications” and “difficulties while using PC” was worse than other subscales. The effects of
the job experience on knowledge showed a negative correlation between them (r= -168, p=
0.001). In addition, participants with an experience of more than 10 years have worse scores
when compared with others ( 27.2±11.4 vs. 30.6±9.4, P=0.003). There was no significant
difference between nurses working in a university hospital and public hospital (28.5 ± 10.9 vs.
30.4±10.4, P= 0.086).
Conclusion: The study concluded that experience in the field is negatively correlated with
knowledge about PCs. Nurses actively caring PCs should be routinely updated, especially about
complications of PCs and management strategies of them.

Keywords

Nurse, knowledge level, port catheters, port catheter care

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