Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a communicable disease of great public health importance. Nurses play an important role in treatment adherence, caring with counseling of patients and their family members and can also guide in early detection of side effects produced by anti-TB drugs. So knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAPs) of nurses will have a tremendous role in the delivery of various treatment modalities to TB patients. Present study was carried out to assess the level of KAP regarding TB among nursing staff. This cross sectional study was conducted in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Hyderabad among 115 nurses. Data collection tool was a questionnaire having 11 questions on knowledge, 4 on attitude and 4 on practical aspects of TB. One hundred and fifteen (100%) nurses could tell about the side effects of anti-TB drugs, while 81 (70.4%) told that 6 months is the minimum duration for treatment of new sputum positive TB cases. 96.5% nurses knew about the sample required for diagnosing TB patients while 98.2% felt compassionate toward TB patients and none of the nurses were equipped in wearing N95 masks while treating TB patients. We conclude that nurses had adequate knowledge, good attitude, and satisfactory practical aspects about TB infection though none of them had undergone NTEP training.