Assessment of Critical Care Nurses' Knowledge and Skills Regarding Sepsis in Critical Care Units

Background: Sepsis is a serious condition that can be life-threatening and affects many people around the world every year. Nurses who care for critically ill patients need to know a lot about sepsis so they can recognize it early and help prevent it. Aim: This study aimed to assess critical care nurses' knowledge and skills regarding sepsis in critical care units. Research design: A descriptive design was utilized in implementation this study. Setting: The study was implemented at intensive care units (acute care (med-surg), critical care (ICU) and emergency department) of Assiut University Hospital, Egypt. Subjects: (80) all available critical care staff nurses Tools: Two tools were used to assess the critical care nurses’ sepsis knowledge and skills namely; critical care nurses’ sepsis knowledge and critical care nurses' skills sepsis assessment. Results: Revealed that (15%) of participants nurses had good knowledge level. While, (30%) of participants had average knowledge level (55%) of participants had poor knowledge level. In addition, (22.5%) of participants had high skills. While, (27.5%) of participants had moderate skills. Also, about half (50%) of participants had low skills. Conclusion: The study results concluded that there was a stronge positive relation between total knowledge and total skills of the critical care nurses toward sepsis. Recommendations: The study recommended that the begin of the execution of sepsis bundle among ICU nursing staff seem have implied a period of a compliance to both sepsis care bundle and nurses executing the bundle inside the desired time convention.