The relationship between nurses' knowledge and performance regarding transition to oral feeding in premature infants in Tabriz hospitals, 2022.

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Oral feeding difficulties are a major challenge for preterm infants. Until oral feeding skills are acquired, infants require an alternative method of meeting nutritional needs and are often fed through a gastric tube. Nurses play an important role in the safe and successful transition of premature infants to oral feeding. Therefore, evaluating the knowledge and performance of nurses regarding oral feeding of premature infants can be the first step towards improving nutritional problems. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the relationship between the knowledge and performance of nurses regarding the transition to oral feeding in premature infants in Tabriz hospitals. Materials and Methods This descriptive correlational study was conducted on 189 nurses working in the neonatal and neonatal intensive care nuites of 9 hospitals in Tabriz in 1401 by census sampling method. The data collection tool included three questionnaires of demographic characteristics, nurses' knowledge about oral feeding of infants by Girgin and Gözen, and nurses' performance regarding the transfer of premature infants to oral feeding. Data were entered into SPSS version 24 software and analyzed using Pearson, chi-square, independent t test and ANOVA. The significance level was considered 0.05 in all tests. Findings The study findings showed that the average knowledge and performance scores of nurses regarding oral feeding transition in preterm infants were 63.26 ± 8.12 out of 100 and 33.44 ± 5.04 out of 42, respectively. A statistically significant positive correlation was found between nurses' knowledge and performance regarding oral feeding transition in preterm infants (p = 0.027). Also, a significant relationship was observed between the knowledge of nurses and the hospital (p=0.02) where they served. There was no statistically significant relationship between nurses' performance and demographic variables (p<0.05). Conclusion Based on the results of the study, the level of knowledge and performance of NICU and newborn departments’ nurses regarding the transition to oral feeding in premature babies is at a moderate and good level. From the findings, it can be concluded that increasing the knowledge of nurses in the field of transitioning premature infants to oral feeding leads to the improvement of their performance. However, in order to accelerate the transfer of infants to independent oral feeding, nurses need to improve their knowledge and practical training about symptom-based feeding and oral-motor stimulation.