NURSES’ KNOWLEDGE OF GLASGOW COMA SCALE IN NEUROLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF PATIENTS IN A SELECTED TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN EDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a reliable and objective neurological assessment tool used for assessing and recording the level of a person’s conscious state. An assessment of consciousness levels is considered a primary action of doctors and nurses who care for patients with neurological or neurosurgical problems. This study assessed the knowledge of Glasgow coma scale in neurological assessment of patients among nurses working in a tertiary hospital, in Edo state, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was used. The respondents were all nurses (226) working in wards/units where unconscious patients are nursed. The instrument for data collection was the pre-tested and administered questionnaire developed by the researchers. Data collected were analysed in proportions and percentages and means; and inferential statistics were used for test of hypotheses at P ≤0.05 level of significance. Result showed that 41.7% of respondents had good, 25.2% moderate and 33.0% had poor knowledge of the GCS. Respondents scored highly (>75%) on knowledge questions eliciting purpose, components, and the behavioural rating scores of GCS domains, but poor (<36%) to moderate (<67%) on questions that concern clinical application of results and GCS use in special situations. Significant differences were found in the GCS knowledge of the nurses across the various wards/units (p= 0.000) with neurological ward nurses having the highest (31.8%) score. There were no significant associations (P> 0.05) between nurses’ age, gender, educational level, years of experience, and GCS knowledge. Continuous professional development and update training for nurses on GCS were recommended.