Nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding nursing care for patients following open-heart surgery

Abstract

Introduction: Open-heart surgery requires complex postoperative monitoring and prompt nursing interventions to prevent complications, reduce morbidity, and support recovery. However, in some settings, nurses' knowledge of evidence-based perioperative cardiac care may be insufficient. This study aims to assess nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding postoperative open-heart surgery care and examine their associations with nurses’ demographic characteristics.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 50 intensive care unit nurses at AL-Nasiriyah Heart Centre in Iraq. Participants were recruited using purposive sampling. Data were collected from 25 June to 21 August 2023 using a self-administered questionnaire covering participants’ demographic characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes regarding postoperative open-heart surgery nursing care. Content validity was assessed by seven experts. Internal consistency was satisfactory, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients of 0.78 for knowledge and 0.82 for attitude. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ordinal regression with SPSS version 23 and Excel 2010.Results: The mean knowledge score was 3.01 ± 1.18, indicating generally poor knowledge, with 58.0% of nurses classified as having poor knowledge. The mean attitude score was 24.03 ± 16.62, indicating a moderate attitude. No statistically significant associations were found between nurses’ demographic characteristics and knowledge or attitude scores.Discussion and conclusion: Nurses demonstrated limited knowledge and a moderate attitude towards postoperative open-heart surgery nursing care. Ongoing education is recommended to improve evidence-based postoperative cardiac nursing care.