Safe Patient Care: Knowledge, Attitude

The present study describes nurses’ knowledge, attitude and self-reported practice regarding safe patient care. A quantitative descriptive correlational design study, using purposive sampling technique was conducted on 70 ICU nurses. The overall indicates that majority of the sample has good knowledge (93%) and positive attitude (87%) towards safe patient care. All sample (100%) reported good patient safety practices. The findings of the study also show no association between knowledge with educational status and years of experience (χ2 =0.021, 0.86) at 0.05 level of significance. The association between attitude with educational status and year of experience (χ2 =152.56, 80.2) are statistically significant at .05 level. While there is a cor exists between knowledge and practice (r=0.361, p=0.002) at 0.05 level of significance, the correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.208, p=0.084), practice and attitude (r=0.032, p=0.795) are not significant at 0.05 level.


INTRODUCTION
Today, nursing has become an exciting profession in the world. Trained nurses embodied in compassion are the greatest blessings to humanity. exceptional; they have a responsibility to support safe patient care. Their role involves a balanced mixture of their knowledge, attitude and practice. @ IJTSRD | Available Online @ www.ijtsrd.com | Volume -2 | Issue -5 | Jul-Aug 2018 The present study describes nurses' knowledge, reported practice regarding safe patient care. A quantitative descriptive correlational design study, using purposive sampling technique was conducted on 70 ICU nurses. The overall result indicates that majority of the sample has good knowledge (93%) and positive attitude (87%) towards safe patient care. All sample (100%) reported good patient safety practices. The findings of the study also show no association between knowledge with educational status and years of experience (χ2 =0.021, 0.86) at 0.05 level of significance. The association between attitude with educational status and year of experience (χ2 =152.56, 80.2) are statistically significant at .05 level. While there is a correlation exists between knowledge and practice (r=0.361, p=0.002) at 0.05 level of significance, the correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.208, p=0.084), practice and attitude (r=0.032, p=0.795) are not knowledge, attitude, practice, safe patient nursing has become an exciting profession in Trained nurses embodied in compassion are the greatest blessings to humanity. Nurses are ponsibility to support safe Their role involves a balanced mixture of BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY Qualified nursing professionals across the globe have a fascinating interest towards safe patient patient care and the efforts to define its quality began with Florence Nightingale in the 1850s, when she used statistical methods to identify the relationship between patient outcomes and environmental conditions. 2 This noble history on outcom measurements attracted the respect and warm approval from statisticians and epidemiologists alike. Nightingale style and innovative thinking are indispensable in modern nursing, as both strive to provide safe patient care. 4

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The principle of safe patient care resides 'in the prevention of harm to patients'. Moreover, it is the prevention of errors among health care professionals and subsequent adverse events among patients in hospitals. 5 According to the updates on patient saf by WHO (2018), there is 1 in 300 chance of a patient being harmed during health care, 421 million hospitalizations in world annually and approximately 42.7 million adverse events occur in patients during these hospitalizations 6 Patient safety has becom increasingly imperative to hospitals. Nurses are the driving force behind patient perceptions of safety and it also is a concern among nursing professionals.

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The overall purpose of this study was to explore the knowledge, attitude and practice of ICU nurses  1 Safe patient care and the efforts to define its quality began with Florence Nightingale in the 1850s, when she used statistical methods to identify the relationship between patient outcomes and environmental This noble history on outcome measurements attracted the respect and warm approval from statisticians and epidemiologists alike. 3 Nightingale style and innovative thinking are indispensable in modern nursing, as both strive to

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The principle of safe patient care resides 'in the prevention of harm to patients'. Moreover, it is the prevention of errors among health care professionals and subsequent adverse events among patients in According to the updates on patient safety by WHO (2018), there is 1 in 300 chance of a patient being harmed during health care, 421 million hospitalizations in world annually and approximately 42.7 million adverse events occur in patients during Patient safety has become increasingly imperative to hospitals. Nurses are the driving force behind patient perceptions of safety and it also is a concern among nursing professionals. 7

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The overall purpose of this study was to explore the e and practice of ICU nurses

RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
H 1 : There will be correlation between knowledge and attitude regarding safe patient care.
H 2 : There will be correlation between attitude and practice regarding safe patient care.
H 3 : There will be correlation between knowledge and practice regarding safe patient care.
H 4: There will be an association between knowledge, attitude and practice with selected demographic variables of the sample.

DELIMITATIONS
The study is delimited to single setting, medical ICUs, self reported scores of practice and staff nurses. Sampling process: The sample for this study was recruited using non-probability purposive sampling technique. They were staff nurses in medical ICUs during data collection period. Head nurses, shift incharges and supervisors were excluded from the data collection.        Table 2 shows association between knowledge with educational status and years of experience. The obtained χ 2 values (χ 2 =0.021, 0.86) are not statistically significant at 0.05 level. Hence the null hypothesis is accepted, showing no significant association between knowledge with educational status and years of experience.

Tools and techniques
International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) ISSN: 2456-6470 @ IJTSRD | Available Online @ www.ijtsrd.com | Volume -2 | Issue -5 | Jul-Aug 2018 Page: 569  Table 3 shows association between attitude with educational status and years of experience. The obtained value (χ 2 =152.56, 80.2) is statistically significant at 0.05 level. Hence the null hypothesis is rejected and research hypothesis is accepted, showing significant association between knowledge with educational status and years of experience.

DISCUSSION
A large part of the patient care is the effort of nurses. Nurses apply their knowledge, skills and experience to care for the various and changing needs of patients 13 . The quality of care by nurse correspond with outcome measures of quality in a hospital 14 .The present study also illustrates that nurses have a good knowledge and practice regarding safe patient care are and their attitude is positive towards safe patient are. This findings contradict the findings of a study 9 that indicated a quite a low level of safety knowledge among health care professionals. The findings of an another study 15 that investigated the level of knowledge, attitudes, and practices of nurses about preventing the spread and management of HAIs at University Clinical Center of Kosovo (UCCK) support the present study. The general level of knowledge of nurses about the spread of HAIs was 90%, about the attitudes was 84.4% and about the nurses' practices was 76.2%.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY
Nursing Practice: Advanced basis such as guidelines and protocols help to adhere to safe patient care by nurses. Nurses must continue to identify knowledge; attitude and practice gap as well. They must sustain their proficiency through training and in service education.
Nursing Education: Nursing students must be provided with opportunities to participate in patient Nursing Administration: Nurse Administrators should round on patients time to time to ensure safe patient care, using evidence based findings and make available clinical guidelines and protocols for the new nurses and nursing students.
Nursing Research: Nurse Researchers can conduct interventional studies regarding safe patient care. They can also conduct studies on factors contributing to safe patient care.

CONCLUSION
The present study claims that Medical ICU nurses have good knowledge, attitude and practice regarding safe patient care. Their knowledge and practice have a positive correlation. The study concludes that good knowledge, attitude and practice enhance safe patient care. Nurses are the driving force behind patient perceptions of safety and satisfaction.