Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Emergency Drugs Among Nurses Working in Ambulance at Selected Areas in Karnataka

Tutor, Government College of Nursing, KMCRI (Former KIMS) Hubli, Karnataka, India

*Corresponding author: Dr.VG Veeresh, Tutor, Government College of Nursing, KMCRI (Former KIMS) Hubli, Karnataka, India, Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]

Received Date: February 19, 2025

Published Date: March 21, 2025

Citation: Veeresh VG. (2025). Study to Assess the Knowledge Regarding Emergency Drugs Among Nurses Working in Ambulance at Selected Areas in Karnataka. Mathews J Nurs. 7(1):55.

Copyrights: Veeresh VG. © (2025).

ABSTRACT

Ambulance nurses are the first line of medical team during any causality, management of critical situation is essential and need sound judgment and clinical proficiency, nurses knowledge and application of emergency drugs will save the life of the patients, 69 ambulance nurses were selected using purposive sampling, to assess their knowledge and application of emergency drugs, the drugs which were focused are, adrenaline, atropine, adenosine, amidarone, nalaxone, nitroglycerin, furosemide, diazepam, noradernaline, magnesium sulphate, sodium bicarbonate, vasopressor, aspirin, lidocaine, pretest determined the knowledge and application level of  ambulance nurses, a structured education module was given to improvise their knowledge which in turn could help nurses in application of emergency drug use in critical situation, a posttest evaluated the improvement in level of knowledge, this data was statistically significant. The findings of the revealed that poor pretest knowledge score, this score was improved after education module which reflected in posttest knowledge scores. Study concluded that, education training was effective in improvising the knowledge of ambulance nurses on emergency drug and recommended the need for covering large group of ambulance nurses to effectively manage the critical ill patients and stabilize before reaching the emergency room at hospital.

Keywords: Emergency Drugs, Ambulance Nurses, Knowledge.

INTRODUCTION

Emergency drugs are those medications which meet the instant therapeutic needs of the patients and which are not available from any other ratified source in enough time to stop threat or harm to patients. Emergency drugs play a vital role in ensuring the quick recovery of a patient and even save life, the goal of treatment is to prevent deteriorating to an arrest situation. The knowledge of nurses especially ambulance nurses is essential in securing, saving, guarding the health and managing the critical illness of the patients from the onset till the patient reach the emergency management room delaying complications and hazards of illness and to prevent medication errors in selection and administration of drugs in emergency situation. The present study designed to assess the knowledge of ambulance nurses regarding the emergency drug and their application in critical situations which improvises nurses skill and knowledge on selection of right drugs during emergency situation [1-9].

METHODOLOGY

An interventional approach with one group pretest posttest design adopted for 69 Ambulance nurses selected using random sampling technique, the inclusion criteria were nurses working in ambulance and are in management of critical ill patients from the site of injury to hospital and excluded were nurses not working in ambulance and are in intensive care unit, a structured knowledge questionnaire designed to assess the knowledge regarding emergency drugs, the study was conducted during April 2024 for duration of three months at Hubli taluk of Dharwad district and the nurses and ethical consent and approval were obtained by concerned authority, based on the pretest knowledge scores, a planned education module administered to improve the knowledge of nurses following which nurses will apply the same in management of the critical ill patients, a posttest conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of planned education module impact on knowledge and its application in critical care of emergency patients. The emergency drugs studied in the module were adrenaline, atropine, adenosine, amidarone, nalaxone, nitroglycerin, furosemide, diazepam, noradernaline, magnesium sulphate, sodium bicarbonate, vasopressor, aspirin, lidocaine. The statistical analysis performed using SPSS 16.0 version for interpretation of the study findings.

RESULTS

The findings of the study related to demographic data were:

Table1. Describes the demographic variable under the study, out of 69 ambulance nurses, 66.66% of them were in age group of 20-30 years, 72.46% were males, 92.75% were undergraduates, 55.07% were experienced less than 3years, 55.07% were earning between 100,000-200,000/- and 92.75% of them had no previous training on emergency management

The present study found that, the pretest knowledge score was poor among ambulance nurses with Mean±Standard Deviation as 8.68± 1.90 and median 8.00 in pretest and in posttest has Mean ± Standard Deviation as 26.82± 1.52 and median 27.00 respectively.

Finding related to effectiveness of planned education module on knowledge of ambulance nurses regarding emergency drugs

The present study found that for Mean±Standard Deviation as 8.68± 1.90 in pretest and posttest Mean ± Standard Deviation as 26.82± 1.52 respectively, the overall knowledge score was significant at t value 59.48 at df = 59 and p value ≤0.001for 95% CI depicting that teaching module was effective in improving the knowledge of nurses regarding emergency drugs which in turn help in practical application of knowledge in critical illness.

DISCUSSION

The demographic variable revealed 66.66% of them were in age group of 20-30 years, 72.46% were males, 92.75% were undergraduates, 55.07% were experienced less than 3years, 55.07% were earning between 100,000-200,000/- and 92.75% of them had no previous training on emergency management [10,11].

The study found that ambulance nurses pretest knowledge regarding emergency drug was poor and this knowledge was improved to good knowledge score in posttest after the education module, these findings of the study were similar to the study findings of Nisha Mane [12] and Kanakalakshmi R [13] which assessed nurses knowledge on emergency drug, revealed the significant difference in pretest and posttest knowledge scores.

CONCLUSION

The demographic variable under study were age, gender, education status, experience, economic status, and previous training on emergency drug revealed diverse findings. The study revealed that the education module was effective in improving the knowledge of ambulance nurses to bring confidence among nurses to apply in management of critical ill patients. The study recommends that a large group of ambulance nurses could be educated on emergency drug usage and right administration in better managing emergency patients in critical life saving situation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

None.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

The author declares that there are no conflicts of interest.

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