Assessment of Nurses’ Performance regarding Pediatric Patients' Safety at Pediatric Health Care Settings

Abstract

Background: Pediatric hematology-oncology patients are at high risk of harm associated with health care, resulting in a need to prevent these occurrences when possible. Care of pediatric oncology patients requires well-educated and trained nurses to provide safe and high- quality care. Aim: Assess nurses’ performance regarding pediatric patients’ safety at pediatric health care settings. Design: A descriptive design. Setting: The current study was conducted at pediatric health care setting, National Cancer Institute affiliated to Cairo University. Subject: A convenience sample composed of 36 nurses who working at the previously mentioned setting. Tools: The data were collected through two tools: Tool I: A structured interview questionnaire that include two parts. Part I: To gather data related to characteristics of nurses. Part II: To assess nurses’ knowledge regarding pediatric patients’ safety at pediatric health care settings. Tool II: Observational checklists to assess nurses’ practices about pediatric patient’ safety. Results: the mean age of the studied nurses was 32.3±9.1 years, more than half of them were females, and less than two thirds were graduated from nursing technical institute. The majority of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory total knowledge about pediatric patients’ safety and less than three fifths of them had incompetent total practices regarding pediatric patient’ safety. Conclusion: The current study concluded that more than two thirds of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory total performance regarding pediatric patient safety at pediatric health care settings. Recommendation: Periodical assessment for pediatric oncology nurses' performance regarding pediatric patients’ safety.