Family Empowerment: Knowledge, Performance, and Attitude of Nurses and Nursing Students toward Family Education

One of the professional duties of nurses is providing the education needed to continue patients' medical treatment at home, influenced by their knowledge, skills, and attitudes. This study aimed to determine the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of nurses and nursing students toward family drug education in pediatric wards.

Instruments & Methods:

This descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 300 nurses and nursing students in the pediatric wards of hospitals affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Knowledge, skills, and attitudes of nurses and students concerning patient and family education in pediatric wards were assessed using a researcher-made questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS 16 software.

All nurses and students agreed with teaching families the safety tips of home medication, but only 60% of nurses and 65% of students agreed with teaching families about drug side effects. Also, there was a significant relationship between the viewpoints of nurses and students regarding the non-use of drugs in the case of teaching drug side effects to the family and their pharmacological knowledge and performance (p<0.05). Students’ knowledge and performance of home pharmaceutical care indicated statistically significant differences with nurses (p<0.05).

Knowledge of pharmaceutical care at home among nurses and students who do not have a positive attitude towards educating families in some areas is not satisfactory.