PD1067 - DETERMINING THE KNOWLEDGE LEVELS OF NURSING STUDENTS REGARDING THE NUTRITIONAL CARE OF SURGICAL PATIENTS: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

PD1067

DETERMINING THE KNOWLEDGE LEVELS OF NURSING STUDENTS REGARDING THE NUTRITIONAL CARE OF SURGICAL PATIENTS: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

R. E. Sezer^1,*, Z. Ozcan², D. Sahillioglu²

¹Department of Surgical Nursing, ²Faculty of Nursing, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye

Rationale: This study aimed to assess the knowledge levels of nursing undergraduate students regarding the nutritional care of surgical patients.

Methods: The descriptive study included 240 second-, third-, and fourth-year nursing students at a university in Turkiye during the 2024–2025 academic year. Students were eligible if they were enrolled in these years of the nursing program, volunteered to participate, and had Internet access. The Student Demographic Information Form and the Questionnaire for Nutritional Care of Surgical Patients were used to collect the research data. Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to data analysis.

Results: The mean age of the students was 22.18± 1.23 years. Most (84.6 %) nursing students were female, and second-year students (47.5 %). The evaluation of students’ knowledge levels by grade showed that second-year students had the highest scores (35.26 ± 10.73), while fourth-year students had the lowest (32.52 ± 7.84). The overall mean for all students was 34.73±10.50. No statistically significant difference was found in knowledge levels between grades (p=0.065).

Conclusion: Nursing students demonstrated only moderate knowledge of nutritional care for surgical patients, with notable gaps in key areas, including malnutrition, timing of postoperative nutrition, and enteral–parenteral nutrition principles. These findings highlight the need to strengthen the curriculum through more practical, case-based, and structured nutrition education.

This research was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) 2209-A Research Project Support Programme for Undergraduate Students.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared