Intensive care nurses' knowledge and adherence towards the prevention of vap / Intan Baizura Ahamad Zamari, Nurul Ashikin Mat Jusoh and Raihatul Fathirah Baharim

Background: The death rate of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is higher than the death rate of infection of central line, severe sepsis, and respiratory tract infections in non-intubated patients which is the leading cause among hospital-acquired infections. The barrier of adherence towards VAP guidelines might due to the deficiency of knowledge. Nurses' knowledge and adherence towards the guideline would promote changes for better outcome to patient and enhance the quality of care. Objectives: This study aimed to determine the knowledge and adherence of intensive care nurses towards the prevention of VAP. Method: Cross-sectional study was conducted at Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Hospital Sungai Buloh (HSB). The questionnaires consist of multiple-choice questions and close-ended questions which were distributed to a total of 81 nurses who participated in this study. The time interval of 20 minutes was given to complete answering the questionnaire. Results: Most nurses have good knowledge on prevention of VAP (65.4%). The mean score of self-reported adherence towards the prevention of VAP was 17.38 (SD=1.65) on 20 questions. There is no correlation between knowledge and adherence of the nurses towards the prevention of VAP (p= 0.697). Conclusion: The nurses might adhere to few guidelines of the prevention of VAP due to their routine practices in ICU and this scenario may illustrate a discrepancy between knowing what is actually prescribed in the guidelines and what is implemented in daily practice. Moreover, to the best of the researchers' opinion, it is important for the nurses to upgrade their knowledge by attending educational programs and involving in research so that the nurses can adhere to the guideline for therapeutic management of patients.