Level of Knowledge of Nurses about Nursing Interventions in Outpatient Surgery for Anorectal Diseases

Abstract

Introduction: Nursing professionals with judgment and clinical knowledge of the interventions they perform are required for successful development of outpatient surgery for anorectal conditions.

Objective: To identify the level of knowledge of nurses about nursing interventions in outpatient surgery for anorectal diseases.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was done in the Ambulatory Surgery services of Camagüey provincial hospitals, from August 2018 to September 2020. A universe was 52 nurses, with more than 5 years of experience in these services. To obtain information on the level of knowledge, a survey with Cronbach's Alpha of 0.647 was applied, which confirmed unidimensionality and additivity. To process the information, the statistical software IMB SPSS Statistics v23 x64 was used, according to the assumptions established by descriptive statistics.

Results: Regarding the domain of surgical instruments, 48.07% of the nurses identified that of operating fistulas, 26.92% that of fissures, and 19.23% identified the instruments to be used in outpatient hemorrhoid surgery. When evaluating basic knowledge, 65.38% were able to mention the main anorectal diseases, 40.38% mentioned the most frequent complications; nursing care in the preoperative period was identified by 34.61% of the total number of nurses evaluated and only 1.92% were able to define the behavior to follow in the face of complications.

Conclusions: The nurses’ level of knowledge about nursing interventions in outpatient surgery for anorectal diseases was identified as unsatisfactory.