Nurses' knowledge on trauma and emergency care and associated factors in Ghanaian district hospitals

Nurses' knowledge of emergency care is a vital component of emergency capabilities. We sought to evaluate the factors that influence the knowledge on trauma and emergency care of nurses in district hospitals in Ghana.

In this cross-sectional study, we administered a questionnaire on emergency care to 406 nurses working in 11 (out of 37) randomly-selected district hospitals in the Ashanti Region. This included 10 multiple-choice questions on trauma care and 10 on general medical/surgical emergency care to objectively assess knowledge on emergency care. Analysis involved descriptive statistics, inferential tests comparing tests scores with Student's t-tests and ANOVA, and multivariable linear regression.

Mean overall test score for knowledge was 60.1 % correct (SD 13.7 %). Results were tightly clustered with an inter-quartile range of 50 % to 70 %. Factors influencing the test scores on multivariable linear regression included: (a) gender (male nurses scored an adjusted 3.8 % higher than female nurses, p = 0.015; beta=3.8; 95 %CI 0.7-6.8); and (b) refresher training (nurses who had received refresher training on emergency care scored an adjusted 3.3 % higher than those who had not received such training, p = 0.018; beta=3.3; CI 0.6-6.0). The higher overall scores for male nurses were due solely to higher scores on trauma-related questions. Male nurses scored an average of an adjusted 5.1 % higher on the trauma questions (p = 0.023; beta=5.1; CI 0.7-9.5) than female nurses, but their scores on general emergency care were not significantly different.

Test scores for knowledge on emergency care for nurses working in Ghanaian district hospitals were generally adequate. While gender did influence test scores, the main actionable factor associated with higher test scores was having received refresher training in emergency care. There is a need for greater availability of such continuing professional development for nurses.