P186 - ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY ON THE NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS AMONG NURSES

P186

ANALYSIS OF A SURVEY ON THE NUTRITION KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS AMONG NURSES

R. H. Gündoğdu^1,*, K. Taşdan², M. Gözde Koçak², I. Aydın³

¹Gastrointestinal Surgery, ²Dietetics, ³ICU, Bozok University, Yozgat, Türkiye

Rationale: According to the nursing regulations in Turkey, there is a deficiency in the nutrition knowledge and awareness of nurses working in clinical settings. A study was planned to assess the level of nutrition knowledge and awareness of nurses, to make future plans in this regard, and to contribute to effective management of patients' nutritional status.

Methods: A 19-question survey was prepared first part assessed the distribution, experiences, and education of the participants in the clinics. The second part measured their basic nutrition knowledge, and the third part included questions that would guide methods to address any deficiencies. The sample size for the study was determined through power analysis (G*Power 3.1.9.7) and was calculated to be at least 90 participants with a 95% confidence interval and a 0.05 error margin.

Results: A total of 97 nurses participated in the survey face-to-face. Of the participants, 95.9% had not received any training/certification on clinical nutrition, 42.3% indicated that a nutrition screening protocol for hospitalized patients was mandatory in their unit, and 54.6% reported having partial knowledge of nutrition. In the analysis of the questions measuring nutrition knowledge, it was found that 37.8% had good knowledge, while 51.5% had insufficient knowledge at the basic level. 74.2% of the participants expressed a desire to receive training on clinical nutrition.

Conclusion: Studies conducted in three different cities of Turkey between 2019 and 2023 found that nurses’ knowledge of nutrition was inadequate and emphasized the need for training in this area. The reason why the results of this study were better might be attributed to our hospital’s clinical nutrition unit, the training and awareness efforts we have made hospital-wide. However, we determined that further planning is needed to enhance basic knowledge and awareness, and we identified methods to achieve this.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared