Nurses'Knowledge and Practices regarding Tunneled Catheter Care among Patients on Maintenance Hemodialysis

Abstract

Hemodialysis requires vascular access to allow rapid extracorporeal blood flow. Central venous catheters which can either be tunneled or not tunneled. Tunneled catheter used for chronic hemodialysis. Hemodialysis nursing is a specialized area focusing on the needs of patients with renal failure across their lifespan. Objective: To assess nurses' knowledge and practices regarding tunneled catheter care among patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Setting: The study was carried out at 3 hospitals in hemodialysis units at Benha city. Subjects: All available hemodialysis nurses involved in care for tunneled catheter comprised of 70 nurses. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection. Tool I was hemodialysis nurses' knowledge questionnaire. Tool II was nurses' practices observational checklist. Results: The present study revealed that the majority of nurses were females and half of studied nurses had secondary school diploma. More than half of the studied nurses possessed a satisfactory overall knowledge and all of the studied nurses possessed an unsatisfactory practice regarding tunneled hemodialysis catheter care and no statistically significant correlation found between overall knowledge and overall practices. Conclusion: The study concluded that nurses' knowledge regarding tunneled hemodialysis catheter care had satisfactory and practice had unsatisfactory. Recommendations: Develop in-service education program for nurses to update their knowledge and practices concerning hemodialysis catheter care.