Assessment of Nurses ’Performance Regarding Care for Elderly Stroke Patients

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Surgical Department Beni-Suef University Hospital, Egypt

2 Nursing Administration department , Faculty of Nursing, Beni-Suef University, Egypt

3 Medical Surgical Nursing department , Faculty of Nursing, Beni-Suef University, Egypt

Abstract

Background: Aging is a natural process of accumulation of diverse deleterious change occurring in cells and tissue with advancing age that are responsible for the increased risk of chronic disease as stroke. Aim: To assess nurses’ performance regarding care for elderly stroke patients. Methods: a descriptive research design was performed on a convenient sample consisted of 68 nurses were available at four departments which are male neurological department, female neurological department, neurological care unit, and medical care unit in Beni-Suef University Hospital, Egypt. Tools: Two tools were used to carry out this study. Tool I: Questionnaire sheet which consisted of two parts: Part (1) Nurses Socio-Demographic characteristics, Part (2) Assessment Nurses Knowledge. Tool II Nurses performance Checklist. Results: Study results reveals that, 100 % of studied nurses had correct knowledge regarding items: description of elderly stroke, the most important diagnostic test, healthy lifestyle of elderly stroke patients, and mortality probability from complications. On the other hand (39.7%, 36.8%, 33.8 %) of studied nurses had incorrect knowledge regarding items: warning signs of elderly stroke, specialty of follow up physician after discharge & information source about elderly  stroke patients, and the main types of elderly stroke respectively. Present finding shows that, 100% of studied nurses had adequate performance regarding observation of changes in conscious level, and observation of mental status in sensation, 94.1 % of them had adequate performance regarding observation of the ability of talking, and observation of mental status in talking and awareness. 89.7% of nurses had adequate performance regarding observation of mental status in memory, concentration, as well as urination & defecation control.
Conclusion: There is a statistically significant relation between nurses’ total knowledge & performance and their ages & years of experiences. There is no statistically significant relation between total nurses’ knowledge& performance and their gender & qualifications. There is a highly statistically correlation between total nurses’ knowledge and their total performance. Recommendations: Periodic assessment for nurses' performance regarding care for elderly stroke patients, provide continuous support for staff nurses to enhance their nurses' performance regarding care for elderly stroke patients, investigate the effect of proper nurses' performance regarding care for elderly stroke patients satisfaction and replicate this study on larger probability sample in different hospitals in order to generalize the result

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