Knowledge among nurses working in health centres regarding high blood pressure in adults.

Abstract

Locally arterial hypertension is managed mainly by general practitioners. The latest hypertension prevalence rate in Malta stands at around 22%. The aim and objectives of this descriptive, exploratory study were to explore nurses' core knowledge in hypertension, awareness about related guidelines, risk factors and prevention of such risk to avoid or delay consequences of hypertension in adults. The whole population of nurses working in Health Centres was invited to participate and the response rate was 69%. Data was collected by means of a 27-item self-administered questionnaire which was specifically designed for this study and analysed quantitatively. Findings reveal that nurses lack critical knowledge about hypertension guidelines and blood pressure measurement techniques. It seems that in areas where knowledge is high correlates with knowledge associated with unchanged guidelines over time or knowledge acquired through the media. This may be due mostly to lack of formal training or retraining in hypertension, since the majority of these nurses have been working for more than 15 years. Recommendations include: introduction of a basic educational programme, in hypertension, to all nurses, followed by a more in depth training course, for those interested, leading to specialists nurse armed with skill to manage hypertensive patients at primary care level. Further research is needed to gather views of other healthcare professionals and patients to evaluate and plan various possible implementations.