Effect of Educational Guidelines about The First 24 Hours Nursing Interventions for Poisoning on Nurses’ Performance and Patients’ Health Outcomes.

Context: Poisoning considered as a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide as patients admitted to hospital in a critical condition to save their life as soon as possible regardless of the type and quantity of the poison. Study aim: To evaluate effect of educational guidelines about the first 24 hours nursing interventions for poisoning patients on nurses’ performance and patient’ health outcomes. Methods: A quasi-experimental research design (pre/posttest) was used. Setting: Study was conducted in poisoning control center at Benha university hospital, Qualyubia, Egypt. Sample: A convenience sample of (200) patients and (41) nurses were recruited in this study. Tools: Four tools were used; (I) Self-administered nurses’ knowledge questionnaire, (II) nurses’ practice observational checklist (III) nurses’ attitude questionnaire, (IV) patient’ health outcomes assessment questionnaire. Results: There was highly statistically significant improvement in total mean score of nurses’ knowledge, practice, and attitude regarding care of poisoning patients within the first 24 hours throughout post guidelines implementation observed as p <0.001 and shows that, before guidelines implementation, (48.5%) of patients had poor treatment outcomes. On the other hand, (81%) of them experienced good outcomes after guidelines implementation. Conclusion: The educational guidelines effectively improved nurses' knowledge, practices, and attitude as there was highly statistically significant correlation between nurse’s total knowledge, practice, and attitude scores post guidelines implementation than before observed with p ≤0.001. In addition, patients experienced improved health outcomes post guidelines than before. Recommendations: Periodic in-service training should be provided to nursing staff to enhance their performance and improve patient’ care quality.