Current Nursing Practices for Managing Children with Burn Injuries

Abstract

Background: Burns are one of the most common forms of trauma in children.Providing adequate care for burnt children properly is the most important contribution to the successful management. Aim: This study aimed to describe the current nursing practice provided for managing children with burn injuries and to identify the most common causes of burn injuries among children. Subject and method: A descriptive exploratory research design was utilized in the study. The study was carried out in burn unit at Plastic, Reconstructive and Burn Surgery Center and Mansoura International Hospital at Mansoura city on a convenient sample of 56 nurses and 100 pediatric patients. Tools: Data were collected by using three tools. Tool 1: Current nursing practices for managing children with burn injury structure questionnaire sheet. Tool II:   Burn care observation checklist and Tool III: clinical data sheet for children with burn injury. Results: the majority of studied nurses never attend any previous training program. The most common cause of burn was boiling water, more than three quarter of studied nurses had poor knowledge, two fifth of them had competent practice about wound dressing. Conclusion: the present study indicated that, the nurses' knowledge regarding burn was poor and were incompetent in the care practice regarding burn injuries. Recommendations: There is a need for burn training program that should be provided to nurses in order to improve their knowledge and practices regarding burn management.