Effectiveness of Planned Teaching Programme on Knowledge of Nurses Regarding Care of Acute Head Injury Patients

Head injury is the leading cause of long term disability among children and young adults and the number of people surviving it with impairment has increased significantly in recent years. This has led to a call for nurses’ skill in trauma and rehabilitation, especially in acute phase. This study was undertaken to assess the effect of planned teaching programme on knowledge of nurses regarding care of acute head injury patients. Objectives: To assess the pre test and post test knowledge score of nurses in providing care to patients with acute head injury, to determine the effectiveness of planned teaching programme in providing care to patients with acute head injury and to find the association between pre test knowledge score with selected sociodemographic variables of nurses. Research methodology: A pre-experimental one group pre-test and post-test research design was selected for the study and non probability convenient sampling technique was used to select 60 staff nurses. A structured knowledge questionnaire was used to evaluate the knowledge level on acute care of head injury patients before and after the Planned Teaching Programme. The collected data were analyzed with chi-square and t test. Findings: The result showed the significant difference suggesting that the Planned Teaching Programme was effective in increasing the knowledge of the staff nurses (t = 20.94). There was highly significant (P<0.01) association between the knowledge of the nurses regarding care of acute head injury patients and selected sociodemographic variables like professional qualification, total clinical experience and area of work. Conclusion: The study concluded that developed Planned Teaching Programme (PTP) was effective in improving the knowledge of nurses regarding care of acute head injury patients.