Özet:

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of pediatric nurses on the topic of vital signs. METHODS: The study was conducted at a children’s hospital located in the province of Izmir, Turkey. One hundred eleven nurses working in the inpatient wards participated in the study. The following four forms were used in the study:  "The Socio-demographic Questionnaire", "The Vital Signs Knowledge Assessment Survey", "The Vital Signs Attitude Assessment Survey" and "Case/Patient Follow-up Form". The Vital Signs Knowledge and Attitude Assessment Surveys consist of questions regarding vital signs and the general principles, temperature, pulse, respiration, blood pressure and pain. The knowledge and attitude surveys were prepared in accordance with the guidelines published by the Royal College of Nursing:  "Standards for assessing, measuring and monitoring vital signs in infants, children and young people" and "The Recognition and assessment of acute pain in children". The knowledge survey comprises 46 questions and the attitude survey comprises 19 questions. "The Case Follow-up Form" was prepared according to the ndings of moderately severe dehydration. RESULTS: The average age of nurses who participated in the study was 31.2±6.3. The nurses’ knowledge survey scores were 87.9±7.8 for general principles, 87.6±10.1 for temperature, 93.1±8.0 for pulse, 96.4±7.4 for respiration, 92.8±7.0 for blood pressure, and 91.8±9.8 for pain. The averages of the attitude survey scores were 81.7±11.99 for general principles, 87.4±15.9 for temperature, 89.6±12.5 for pulse, 95.3±9.8 for respiration, 95.8±12.2 for blood pressure, and 91.0±15.5 for pain. Although 49% of nurses stated that nurses should decide the frequency of monitoring vital signs, 41.4% of them stated that it should be ordered (written) by the physician. It was found that there was a signi cant relationship between the year of work and the attitude scores of blood pressure measurement. There were differences between the frequency of nurses’ responses in the case follow-up. CONCLUSION: According to our  ndings, the nurses’ knowledge and attitude scores relating to the monitoring of vital signs were quite high. In order to update nurses’ knowledge and to develop better behaviors toward monitoring vital signs, in-service trainings following evidencebased guidelines should be provided, especially for nurses working in the clinics for a long time.

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