Abstract:
Preoperative patient care is helping the patient to understand and prepare
physically, mentally and psychologically for the surgical procedure and recovery in the
postoperative period. Approximately millions of people die worldwide within 30 days of surgery
each year. Even though some studies across the globe conducted on preoperative care;
preoperative care was not been given adequate attention in Ethiopia.
Objective: To assess practice of preoperative patient care and to identify the associated factors
among surgical unit nurses of southern Ethiopian Specialized hospitals, from May15 to June 15,
2021.
Methods and materials: Institution based cross-sectional study was employed among 366
randomly selected nurses of southern Ethiopian Specialized hospitals. Data was collected by
trained BSc nurses and entered into Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 21 for
analysis. Both descriptive and inferential analysis were done, all covariates that were significant
at p-value < 0.25 in binary logistic regression analysis was considered for further multivariable
logistic regression analysis and the results were declared as statistically significant at P < 0.05
using odds ratio and 95% CI.
Result: From the finding of this study the prevalence of poor practice of preoperative patient
care among surgical unit nurse in three southern Ethiopian Specialized hospitals were
45.4%[39.9, 50.3] and 61.4% [54.5, 71.7] by self-administered and observational check list
respectively. Being diploma nurses 8.55 [4.56, 16.02], professional seniority of less than 6years
3.01 [1.45, 6.25], Poor knowledge of nurses 2.78[1.52, 5.08], Work over load of nurses
2.95[1.36, 6.41], Resources unavailable 2.36[1.34, 4.14], and Job attributes factors 3.51[1.77,
6.97] were factors significantly associated with poor practice of nurses.
Conclusion: In this study, prevalence of poor practice of preoperative care was found to be
nearly two-third in Southern Ethiopian comprehensive specialized Hospitals. Being diploma
nurse, less than 6 years of professional seniority, poor knowledge of nurses, work over load to
nurses, resource unavailability, and job attributes were significantly associated with poor practice
of preoperative nurse. This finding may help the health professional to improve practice.
