Assessment of Nurses Competency during emergency Management of Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Nursing care is of utmost importance in survival of a patient with myocardial infarction. The competence of the nurse in charge is very crucial in such patient care. This study aimed at assessment of nurses‘ competence in management of patients presenting with myocardial infarction at five Hospitals in Khartoum State. Materials and Methods: Relevant data were collected by standardized structured questionnaire from 139 nurses (participants) caring from patients in the cardiac care units (CCU) and emergency departments. Results: The study enrolled 139 nurses (females 84% and males 16%); with various qualification degrees master 10 %, Bachelor 67% and diploma 23% randomly selected from the already mentioned departments. About 55% of the participants had level of knowledge in management of acute myocardial infarction below average while 42% of the study sample had attitude below average. Moreover, 58% of the participants had below average skill. By testing the factors that affect the competence components it appeared that training, management guidelines, qualification, experience in nursing and number of years expended in CCU and emergency department had got significant effect.Conclusion: It was concluded from this study that the level of the nurse competence in the management of patients with acute myocardial infarction depends on the advanced level of training and setting of clear guidelines for management.