Cognition of nurses in high-risk surgical departments for prevention of venous thromboembolism

Objective To explore the cognition of nurses in high-risk surgical departments for prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) . Methods Totally 464 nurses in surgical departments at high risk of VTE (departments of orthopedics, general surgery, neurosurgery, thoracic surgery, and critical care medicine) from 11 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) nationwide who attended the seminar on nursing by the Chinese Nursing Association in September 2017 were investigated with VTE Prevention Knowledge Questionnaire for Clinical Nurses to understand their knowledge about basic, physical and drug prevention for VTE. Results The cognition of VTE prevention of nurses in high-risk surgical departments scored (13.51±3.42) , standing at a medium level. In particular, the knowledge about physical prevention was unsatisfactory, which scored (5.71±2.18) . The cognition score of VTE prevention varied in nurses of different departments, and the cognition of VTE prevention of nurses from departments of general surgery, orthopedics and critical care medicine was relatively better. Multivariate analysis revealed that educational background was an independent risk factor for the cognition of VTE prevention of nurses in high-risk surgical departments (OR=1.630, 95%CI: 1.035-2.567) . Conclusions The cognition of VTE prevention of nurses in high-risk surgical departments is unsatisfactory and cannot meet the needs of clinical work. Targeted training should be provided according to the weak links in the cognition of VTE prevention of nurses in high-risk surgical departments to improve the quality of VTE prevention and nursing, thus reducing the incidence rate of perioperative VTE in these patients. Key words: Venous thromboembolism; Prevention; Cognition; Surgical nurses; Investigation