Conhecimento de enfermeiros de unidades de terapia intensiva sobre sepse

Abstract

Sepsis is defined as a life-threatening organic dysfunction caused by an unregulated host response to an infection and is a relevant illness in hospitals and, especially, in Intensive Care Units (ICUs). As a member of the multidisciplinary team assisting the septic patient, in the ICU, the nurse plays an important role in halting the progress of the sepsis, based on the adoption of protocols to keep the organization of care and efficiency of the interventions applied. Objective: To analyze the nurses' knowledge about the managed sepsis protocols in ICUs. Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with a quantitative approach, executed in ICUs of a reference hospital. The population was all the nurses who work in the hospital ICUs. The data was collected between October and December of 2024, by completing a semidemografical and professional form and a theoretical knowledge test about the identification, treatment, and management of the sepsis. The data were organized, processed, and analyzed using programs and descriptive statistics of absolute distributions, percentages, means and standard deviations for quantitative data and frequencies, presented in graphics and tables. Results: The study was made with 29 (70,7%) nurses in the hospital’s ICUs. The average score presented in the theoretical knowledge test about sepsis identifications, treatment, and knowledge was 4,14 points, with a median of 4, minimum of 2, and maximum of 10 points. About the pre-established knowledge levels 20 (68,96%) of the nurses presented “poor knowledge” about sepsis identification, treatment, and management, seven professions (24,14%) showed “low knowledge”, one (3,45%) showed an adequate level, and finally, just one (3,45%) demonstrated having “excellent knowledge” about the theme. They presented better performance in questions related to blood culture collection, initiation of intravenous antimicrobial therapy, and fluid resuscitation. On the other hand, was noted that most of the participants didn’t know the the definition of sepsis, the indication for the administration of vasopressors, the recommendation for the use of colloids, the contraindications to the use of bicarbonate in the management of lactic acidosis and the care to evaluation after volume resuscitation. Conclusion: The nurses in the ICUs don’t have enough knowledge to identify, treat, and manage sepsis correctly, according to the managed protocol. Therefore, there’s no doubt about the need for training about the sepsis protocol in the institution, capacitation of the multi-professional team, besides the indispensability of building well-planned strategies for the adoption of permanent education in the unit's routine, aiming to provide the improvement of knowledge and abilities about the sepsis identification, treatment and management.