Nurses knowledge and attitude in the prevention and management of high blood pressure in primary health care centres in Delta State Nigeria.

Ofili Mary Isioma

Department of Nursing Science, Delta State University, Abraka, Postal address: P.O. Box 212, Abraka, Nigeria

E-mail: isiomamary@yahoo.com, Mobile phone: +2348036719498, 08023758292

Accepted 10 April, 2012

Abstract

Nurses are often engaged in the prevention of chronic diseases like hypertension in primary health care settings. However, information about their knowledge and attitude in prevention of high blood pressure in South-South Nigeria are scarce. Therefore this research attempts to assess nurses’ knowledge and attitude to assessment strategies for prevention of high blood pressure. An interviewer’s administered questionnaire was used to gather information from eighty-five nurses chosen from the twenty-nine randomly selected primary health care centres from the twenty-five local government areas in Delta State. The results show that 72% of the nurses had good knowledge of assessment strategies for prevention of high blood pressure. However, 72% of the nurses exhibited negative attitude to the use of the strategies. As recommended by the Nurses Hypertension Association (NHA) guidelines, over 90% knew and mentioned lifestyle modification advices and patient education activities as strategies for prevention of high blood pressure. The Nurses’ knowledge about the target blood pressure levels to be achieved for both complicated and uncomplicated hypertensive patients were quite different from the recommended ones. Overall, most of the nurses had no training in the management of hypertension and did not make use of the NHA guidelines. These indicate the need for facilities to organize training courses on hypertension management for nurses. It would also be beneficial to include new trends in nursing education. The NHA guidelines would need to be introduced to students while in school.

Keywords: Knowledge, Hypertension, Blood pressure, Management, Nurses, Patients