ASSESSMENT OF CRITICAL CARE NURSES KNOWLEDGE OF THE PULMONARY-ARTERY CATHETER

Objectives: To assess the knowledge and understanding of the use of th e pulmonary artery catheter and interpretation of data derived from it in a group of nurses attending the American Association of Critical C are Nurses' National Teaching Institute conference. Design: A 37-quest ion multiple choice examination that tested knowledge regarding the us e of the pulmonary artery catheter was administered to a group of nurs es, attending a national conference, who preregistered for a hemodynam ics workshop. Setting: American Association of Critical Care Nurses' N ational Teaching Institute Conference, New Orleans, LA,May 1992. Measu rements and Main Results: Two-hundred sixteen nurses completed the que stionnaire. The mean test score was 16.5 +/- 5.7 (SD) (48.5%). Test sc ores were significantly associated with years of experience in critica l care, critical care registered nurse certification, responsibility f or repositioning and manipulating the catheter, frequency of use, and self-assessed adequacy of knowledge. Conclusions: A wide variation in the understanding of the use of the pulmonary artery catheter exists a mong nurses using this device in the care of seriously ill patients. T he results indicate that current teaching practices regarding the pulm onary artery catheter need to be reevaluated and specific credentialin g policies need to be considered.