Effect of Implementing Eye Care Clinical Guidelines Training on Nurses’ Competencies and Reduction of Eye Complications among Critically Ill Patients

Abstract

<title>Abstract</title> Background Eye care (EC) is a vital component of nursing care for critical care units (CCUs) patients, especially for those whose ocular protective mechanisms may be compromised. Nevertheless, it can often be underestimated because of the emphasis on maintaining vital body functions. To prevent complications, including those related to the eyes, nurses need to have considerable knowledge of and great competence in carefully assessing and correctly diagnosing patients’ eye problems that can be accomplished through pre-service education and continuous in-service hands-on training and education. Aims (1) investigate the effect of implementing eye care clinical guidelines (ECCG) education on nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and practice of EC and (2) evaluate the effect of educational clinical training guidelines on the prevention or even reduction of the occurrence of eye complications among critically ill adults. Methods An interventional study with a pre-post design that assessed and compared nurses' scores before and after the ECCG training of CCU nurses. A Convenient sample of all available nurses who worked in the selected setting and A purposive sample of adult (100) critically ill patients who had the eligible criteria were included in the study. Three tools were used to collect data for the current study. Tool One “eye care clinical competency (ECCC) Questionnaire”, tool two “assessment level of lagophthalmos sheet”, and tool three “superficial ocular surface complication assessment scales”. Results A total of 75 nurses and 100 critically ill patients were included in the study. The percentage scores of post-implementation ECCG of participating nurses’ eye care knowledge, and practice were significantly higher than their pre-implementation scores ((P ≤ 0.001) respectively. However, there was no significant difference between pre &amp; post-implementation of ECCG on the nurses ‘attitude scores (p-value 0.147). Additionally, the incidence of all eye complications was 84% of patients in the pre-group and 46% of the patients in the post-group with a high statistically significant difference (p &lt; 0.001) between both studied groups. Conclusions Implementation of ECCG improved EC nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice which contributed to the reduction of the incidence rate of eye complications among critically ill patients.