Effectiveness of Information Booklet on Knowledge Regarding Tracheostomy Care Among Nursing Officers Working in Intensive Care Units of SKIMS, Soura Srinagar

Abstract

Introduction: Tracheostomy is a procedure in which an artificial opening is made in trachea by separating the muscles beneath the skin after given incision on it. It can be done on routine or emergency basis. It is one of the frequently done procedures in modern surgery. It is usually done in clients suffering from respiratory obstruction or need long time ventilation by mechanical means. It is done in about 24% of all patients in intensive care units. It takes 48–72 hours for a tracheostomy patient to adapt to breathing through the opening. Suctioning is one of the main procedures that requires nursing care, along with skin cleaning and maintenance of good nutrition and client health. The area around stoma is to be taken care of. Oral hygiene and assessing the complications arising out of this procedure are watched closely. Skilled[P1]  nursing professionals do know that they have to keep check at normal functions of the upper airway including warming, filtering, and humidifying inspired air as in tracheostomy these functions are lost due to bypass of the upper respiratory system. Thus, nursing care must focus on providing humidified oxygen to the client by the use of t piece or trachea collar. The patient can be encouraged to have sips of warm water or appropriate fluid that will promote thinning and mobility of respiratory secretions, thus will eventually help in prevention of mucus plug formation in the respiratory tract. Methodology: In order to conduct this study, a pre-experimental research design was selected. 40 study subjects working in selected areas of SKIMS (intensive care units), were selected by purposive sampling technique. The data was collected via self-structured knowledge questionnaire. Results: The results if this study depicted that the majority of study subjects i.e., 22 (55%) were in age group of <30 years, majority 27 (67.5%) were males, the majority 29 (72.5%) were BSc nursing students, majority 15 (37.5%) were from Neuro ICU, the majority 24 (60%) were having <5 years of experience, majority 38 (95%) had not attended any in-service education programme/workshop. This study concludes that there is significant increase in knowledge after nursing intervention (t test=21.68, p value=0.000) and no significant association was found between the pre-test knowledge score with respect to their selected demographic variables viz. Age (p value=0.396) Gender (p value=0.305), Professional Qualification (p value=0.831), Place of posting (p value=0.361), professional experience (p value=0.363)) except in-service education/workshop attended (p value=0.04). Conclusion: The findings of the study concluded that study subjects were having inadequate knowledge regarding tracheotomy care. The nursing intervention in the form of information booklet was found effective in increasing the knowledge score of study subjects.