A Comparative Study to Assess the Knowledge and Expressed Practice of Staff Nurses and Student Nurses regarding Crash Cart in a Selected Hospital of New Delhi

Abstract

Background: A crash cart is a cart stocked with emergency equipment’s, medicines and is frequently used by the health professionals especially nurses and the student nurses. If they don’t have adequate knowledge about crash cart and its utilization and maintenance, quality patient care will be affected and it may even risk the life of patient in emergency. The objectives of the study were to assess and compare the knowledge and expressed practice of staff nurses and student nurses regarding crash cart and to develop and disseminate information booklet on crash cart.

Materials and Methods: Quantitative Research with descriptive comparative research design was used. Structured questionnaire and checklist were used to assess the knowledge and expressed practice respectively. Convenience sampling technique was adopted to select 50 staff nurses and 50 student nurses from a selected hospital and a college of nursing in Delhi respectively. Data was analyzed using Descriptive and Inferential statistics.

Results: The findings showed that 60% of the staff nurses and only 10% student nurses had adequate knowledge on crash cart. 80% of the staff nurses had adequate practice score and 60% student nurses had inadequate practice score on crash cart.

Conclusion: The present study revealed that most of the staff nurses had adequate knowledge about crash cart whereas most of the student nurses had inadequate knowledge about crash cart. The study thus implies that nursing staff and students should be taught and demonstrated the arrangement and use of crash cart. There should be clear instructions about the use of crash cart in each and every unit.