A Study on Nurses' Perception for Nutrition Education Working in Kyungnam area

ABSTRACT

This study was performed to investigate nurses' perception for nutrition education. The subjects of this study were 197 nurses and 94 nursing assistants working at hospitals in the Kyung-nam area. The survey was conducted by using a self-administered questionnaire in November, 2001. The results were as follows : Sixty-seven point seven percent of the subjects were nurse, 32.3% were nursing assistant. Average age of subjects was 26.9 years old, average nursing experience was 5.7 years, and 70.7% of the subjects graduated from a junior college. The average nutrition knowledge score was 14.3+/-2.5 out of possible 20 points. Seventy-four point two percent of the subject responded that nutrition education is very necessary for patient, and positive responses in the nurse were higher than that nursing assistant(p<0.001). Only 8.6% of the subjects had nutrition education training. The perceptions about a suitable person for nutrition counseling and nutrition education indicated dietitian(69.3%) and nurse(21.3%). Fifty-two point eight percent of the subjects responded that they would not participate in nutrition education themselves and the main reason for this was that they believed lack of expert knowledge(43.4%), and that such courses should be taught by specialist(40.5%). Forty-eight point eight percent of subjects had nutrition counseling experience for patient, and nurses, married nurses and those over 2 years of nursing careers had significantly higher nutrition counseling experience for patient than nursing assistant, unmarried nurses and those under 2 years of nursing careers(p<0.05~p<0.001)