Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge Regarding Care of Premature Babies at Al-Diwanyiah City, Iraq

Abstract

Background: Prematurity is described as a childbirth that occur before the 37th week of pregnancy (less than 259 days). It is responsible for almost one-third of all baby deaths. Preterm infants require immediate postnatal care in a postnatal ward or in (NICU) for proper observation and care from qualified nurses, together with rigorous evaluation and other treatment procedures as required.They also have an incomplete functional system and face a variety of physiologic challenges. As a result, this study was carried out to evaluate the nurses' understanding of how to care for premature babies. Material/Methods: In order to evaluate the pediatric nurses' knowledge regarding the care of the premature baby, a descriptive design was carried out for nurses working in the NICU in Maternity and Pediatric Teaching Hospital and Al- Hussein hospital at Al-Diwanyiah City from 11th November of 2021 to 15th May 2022. Results: According to the study, the majority of nurses (96%) are between the ages of 20 and 25. Of them, it was found that 68.6% have a diploma. In the NICU, 76.5% of the nurses have 1 to 5 years of experience. In addition, the study's findings revealed that 41.2% of the sample had only taken two training courses before. Finally, the study revealed that 90.2% of nurses had fair (moderate) understanding of premature babies, and at p-values more than 0.05, there is no interaction seen between nurses' broad understanding and their demographic details. Conclusions: According to the study's findings, 90.2% of nurses have fair (moderate) understanding of premature babies, 7.8% have high knowledge, and 2.0% have low knowledge. There was no correlation between the nurses' overall knowledge and their demographic data at a p-value greater than 0.05. (0.05). Recommendations: In order to progress and improve staff abilities and to provide standardized nursing procedures to instructing nurses on how to care for risky preterm infants in the premature newborns units, it is advised to provide ongoing training courses and training programs for nursing care for premature babies (NICUs). Additionally, hiring trained nurses for the units that care for premature babies (NICUs).