Effect of a Self-instructional Module on Clinical Nurses’ Knowledge and Practice Regarding Prevention of Venous Thromboembolism in Post-operative Patients

Abstract

Abstract This pre-experimental study was done to assess the effect of a self-instructional module on clinical nurses’ knowledge and practice regarding the prevention of venous thromboembolism (VTE) in post-operative patients. The sample consists of 30 clinical nurses working in post-operative ICUs selected by purposive sampling technique. The tools used were a self-administered structured questionnaire on socio-demographic data and knowledge and an observation checklist on practice regarding the prevention of VTE. The study findings revealed that there was a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test knowledge and practice scores as the mean knowledge score of the post-test (16.93 ± 2.82) is higher than the pre-test score (13.70 ± 3.35) and the mean practice score of post-test (3.06 ± 1.17) is higher than the pre-test score (2.16 ± 0.74). There was a weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice scores (r = 0.08). The study findings also showed that there was no significant association between the pre-test level of knowledge and practice with selected demographic variables such as age, gender, qualification, total years of experience, previous knowledge on VTE and source of information. It can be concluded that the self-instructional module is effective in improving the knowledge and practice of clinical nurses in the prevention of VTE.