AN EXAMINATION OF THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES AND PRACTICE OF NURSES REGARDING THE NUTRITION OF SURGERY PATIENTS

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice of nurses working in surgery units regarding the nutrition of surgery patients. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted on 252 nurses working in the surgical clinics of two university hospitals in ？zmir during June and October 2014. The questionnaire used to collect data was developed by the researchers, and consisted of 48 questions on the nurses’ sociodemographic characteristics and their knowledge, attitudes and practice with regard to nutrititon. Number, percentage, mean and standard deviation, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis tests, and Cronbach’s α and Spearman rank correlation were used for data analysis. Results: The mean knowledge score of surgical nurses for the feeding of surgical patient was 75.75% and the mean attitude score was 82.57%, and 63.9% of them had a knowledge level of “good”. Conclusion: As a result of the study, it was found that the knowledge and attitude scores of the nurses about nutrition were high, and the scores of surgery nurses on knowledge of nutrition increased, their attitude scores also increased