Assessing Knowledge of Nurses on Blood Transfusion in Turkey

Background: Blood transfusion is an important and lifesaving pr ocess in acute or chronic conditions. However, blood or blood products transfusion has some risks; therefore, before transfusion its clinical benefit s and necessity for each patient is should be evaluated a nd considered carefully. Objective: The aim of this study was to assess knowledge of n urses who took the course (before than after) on blood transfusion. Methodology: In the study, a pre-test and a post-test were give n to a single group of participants. The study was conducted with the nurses working in Izmir who part icipated in the "Blood and Blood Products Practice Course for Nurses". In the study, 25 nurses who filled out the questionnaires completely before and after the course were included in the sample. The study data were collect ed by the researchers before and after the course u sing the 12item socio-demographic characteristics questionnair e nd the 35-item blood transfusion questionnaire. Th study data were analyzed using the SPSS 17.0 software pac kage. Results: The mean age of the participants was 27.36 (± 5.31 ) and 72% of them were in the 18-30 age group. Comparison of the nurses’ preand post-course mean knowledge scores revealed that their preand post -course mean scores were 42.86 (±13.84) and 68.90 (± 6.08) respectively, and that the difference was statistic ally significant (Z = -4144, P = 0.000). Conclusions: The results demonstrated that the blood transfusio n update course significantly increased the participating nurses’mean knowledge scores. Therefo re, it was proposed to give in-service trainings an d courses on blood transfusion to nurses working in all units .