Assessment of Knowledge on Care of Patient with Attempted Suicide among Nurses

Introduction: The assessment and management of patients who have attempted suicide present difficulties for nurses working in multispecialty hospitals because of routine job pressure and a lack of time for continuing education. Thus, in order to plan to raise the knowledge competency of nurses, it is critical to evaluate the current state of this field by gauging the nurses’ degree of understanding on the care of patients who have attempted suicide. This study was aimed to assess the level of knowledge on care of patient with attempted suicide among nurses at selected hospital, Chennai. Material & Methods: This study was conducted by using the cross sectional, correlational research design among 50 nurses who were selected through purposive sampling technique in a selected hospital, Chennai, India. A structured questionnaire was employed to assess the nurses’ knowledge regarding the management of patients who have attempted suicide. Data was gathered through self-administration. Results:Most of the nurses were in category of needs improvement (90%) in knowledge and the mean, mean% and standard deviation for knowledge score of nurses were 3/10, 30% & 1.125 respectively. Conclusion: The majority of nurses require further education in order to provide care for patients who have attempted suicide. Studies on the best ways to educate and train nurses working in multispecialty hospitals should be conducted in the future to ensure that patients who have attempted suicide receive high-quality nursing care.