Abstract:

Aim: To determine the situation of nurses working in surgical units to perform bladder training exercise before terminating bladder catheterization and to assess their level of knowledge about this practice. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted as a descriptive cross-sectional study between July 2022 and January 2023 with 82 surgical nurses working at a state hospital and a university hospital. The research was conducted in surgical units where postoperative bladder catheterization is frequently performed (general surgery ward, orthopedic ward, obstetrics and gynecology ward, anesthesia and reanimation intensive care units). Socio-demographic data form, bladder gymnastics application, and knowledge form were used as data collection tools. The application of the forms took 15-20 minutes. The significance level of the data was evaluated with p<0.05. Results: The mean age of the 82 nurses who participated in the study was 30.89±7.32 years; 80.49% were female and 76.82% were undergraduate graduates. In the study, more than half of the nurses (53.66%) stated that they performed bladder training exercise their patient, 26.83% stated that bladder training exerscise should be performed 4 hours before urinary catheter removal, 25.61% stated that bladder training exercise should be performed 2 hours before urinary catheter removal, 43.90% stated that the urinary catheter should remain clamped for one hour during bladder training exercise, and 32.93% stated that the urine drainage time should be 30 minutes. In addition, it was determined that the bladder training exercise knowledge questionnaire score increased significantly (p<0.05) as the education level of the nurses increased. Conclusion: Nurses should be given training regarding bladder gymnastics throughout their professional education and post-graduation period, bladder gymnastics practices should be determined by standard protocols and the number of evidence-based studies should be increased.

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