Nursing staff knowledge of parenteral nutrition – preliminary report

Introduction:
Parenteral nutrition provides all necessary nutrients, bypassing the gastrointestinal tract in patients in whom oral or enteral nutrition is not possible. Parenteral nutrition can be effective and safe, but unfortunately it also carries the risk of complications. Most of these can be avoided if the procedures are closely supervised and monitored by those performing them. The main aim of the study was to assess nursing staff’s knowledge of parenteral nutrition.

Material and methods:
The study used a diagnostic survey method – the questionnaire technique. The research tool was a self-designed questionnaire and a knowledge test. One point was awarded for answering each single-choice question correctly, while 0.5 points were given for selecting each of the correct answer options for the multiple-choice questions.

Results:
A total of 118 respondents from intensive care, surgical, and general medicine wards took part in the survey. The level of knowledge of nursing staff about parenteral nutrition was assessed as inadequate in 72% of the cases, while a good level of knowledge was possessed by 28%. None of the respondents had a very good level of knowledge. In the majority of wards where the respondents worked, the preparation of parenteral nutrition was handled by the hospital pharmacy (54.2%). In the majority of wards where the nursing staff prepared parenteral nutrition, there was a procedure for preparing parenteral nutrition under aseptic conditions (54.4%).

Conclusions:
The knowledge of medical staff about parenteral nutrition was incomplete. The place of work, completion of a qualification course in anaesthesia and intensive care, having a specialisation, and having experience of the procedure for preparing parenteral nutrition under aseptic conditions all had a significant impact on the level of knowledge of the respondents.