A descriptive survey on knowledge gap related to retinopathy of prematurity and its prevention and management among nurses in a tertiary care hospital

Abstract

Purpose: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of severe visual impairment of childhood affecting preterm babies. The disease is sensitive to the quality of neonatal nursing care provided to preterm neonates in any neonatal intensive care unit. (NICU). The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge gap among nurses related to ROP and its prevention and management working in NICU in a tertiary care hospital. Methods: In a cross-sectional descriptive survey, 53 nurses working in a selected NICU of a tertiary care hospital were enrolled. A pretested and validated self-administered questionnaire was used to assess the knowledge of nurses related to ROP. The questionnaire consisted of two main parts namely the demographic information and the knowledge questionnaire related to ROP related to risk factors of ROP, screening procedure, and nursing care to babies with ROP before, during, and after the procedure. Results: The majority of nurses were female with a mean age of 33.48 ± 5.85 years, having a median of 5 years of experience in NICU. Most of the nurses (38, 68%) had overall poor knowledge, followed by fair knowledge (21%) with the mean knowledge scores of 14.07 ± 2.06. No significant association between the overall knowledge scores and age, total professional experience in NICU, designation, and educational qualification of the nurses could be observed ( P ≥ 0.05). Conclusion: Most of the nurses working in the NICU had poor knowledge regarding ROP, necessitating the need for updating the knowledge of nurses related to ROP, its prevention, and management by disseminating information about the disease through seminars, and workshops and arranging in-house educational sessions on ROP.

Oxygen delivery and monitoring in neonatal intensive care units in Mexico in 2011 and in 2023

“…Similar findings have been reported from other low resource settings. (17,23) In another study, in a government hospital in Kerala, India, only 48% of nurses had a diploma in nursing; >50% had up to 5 years of experience in paediatric care and 73% also worked in other areas in the hospital.…”

Awareness and Practice Patterns Among Pediatricians Regarding Retinopathy of Prematurity at Bharatpur, Chitwan, Nepal

“…It is similar to other studies which highlighted the nonavailability of experienced ophthalmologists as well as incompatible screening guidelines. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] Mean knowledge score among the participants was 14.12 ± 4.14 out of the total score of 22 points. Managing ROP is a collaborative work that requires a multidisciplinary team, where the pediatricians, who are the first-line physicians, detect ROP and refer preterm infants to the Ophthalmologists who confirm the diagnosis and initiate the treatment.…”

“…6 In a study measuring the level of awareness about ROP among NICU nurses, most of the nurses (38, 68%) had overall poor knowledge with the mean knowledge scores of 14.07 ± 2.06. 7 Some study showed that there was a very high level of awareness among pediatricians regarding ROP 8 , whereas, other studies indicated that the awareness level among them was not adequate. [9][10][11][12][13] To the best of our knowledge, no studies were done in Nepal concerning ROP screening or awareness among pediatricians…”

Retinopathy of prematurity in India – what can we learn from the polio legacy?

“…Using quality improvement methods, healthcare providers were able to improve parental awareness, nurse knowledge, and ROP screening rates in a short time frame without needing additional resources or manpower. 74 Another quality improvement initiative increased ROP screening rates from 10.7% in the preintervention phase to 87.3% in the postintervention phase in a tertiary NICU in northern India. 75 …”