Nurses' and anaesthetists' knowledge and practice on pre-operative fluid fasting

Abstract

The aim of this descriptive study was to establish the nurses' and anaesthetists' knowledge and practice with regards to pre-operative fluid fasting. Data was obtained through the use of a questionnaire, which was administered to a proportionate stratified random sample of 20 nurses and to 17 anaesthetists, who were selected using a simple random sampling design. The actual fluid fasting time of a quota sample of 40 elective surgical patients was also calculated. This study has indicated that both nurses and anaesthetists had an intermediate level of knowledge on this subject, and that the difference between their knowledge was not statistically significant. The results also suggested that no individualised planning of fasting time was being performed. The mean fluid fasting time was calculated to be 13.51 hours. Also, there was no statistical significance in the mean fluid fasting time of the patients on the different surgical wards. Another result showed that the majority of both nurses and anaesthetists acknowledged that there were difficulties in implementing the recommended fluid fasting time. As a result of this study, recommendations for both practice and research are suggested.