Nursing staff knowledge of cholera disease

Abstract

Objective: to assess the level of knowledge of nursing staff regarding cholera disease in a public hospital. Methods: Prospective study, in a non-probabilistic sample for convenience in 285 nurses, a questionnaire was elaborated from the criteria of experts. The following variables were evaluated: type of infection, lethality, vaccine efficacy, frequent symptom, causal agent, epidemiological prevention, fundamental treatment, main transmission mechanism, reservoir and main preventive measure. By means of a Visual Analog Scale (VAS) of 0-100 (0 =failure, 100 =failure), it was evaluated what knowledge they considered they had about cholera. In the comparison of the understanding of the disease with the degree of education of the interviewed nurses, the Spearman's Chi-square test, statistical validity (P<0.05), was applied. Results: A high level of knowledge, greater than 80%, was found with respect to cholera. There is a low knowledge of the disease with respect to the reservoir and the main preventive measure, which does not exceed 40%. These findings are the same in the different education categories: assistant, superior technician and graduate, there was no statistical difference. (P>0,05). Conclusions: Knowledge of cholera is high in this sample; however, it is recommended to reinforce in this health personnel what is related to the deficient domains, in order to be better educated for an eventual outbreak of this disease.