KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS TOWARDS EARLY MOBILIZATION OF CRITICALLY ILL PATIENTS IN INTENSIVE CARE UNITS OF PESHAWAR: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Background: EM in the ICU is vital for critically ill patients. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, and attitude of the health care providers in the ICU regarding EM in Peshawar, Pakistan.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the knowledge, and attitude of healthcare providers in intensive care units about the EM of patients who are critically ill and to find the association of knowledge with the EM of patients.

Methodology: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in a tertiary care hospital the health care providers, namely physicians, anesthetists, surgeons, nursing staff, and physiotherapists working in the ICU were interviewed using a structured questionnaire.

Results: 169 healthcare workers were included in our study response rate was 100 %. The proportion of good, fair, and poor knowledge toward early mobilization was 18.3 %, 45 %, and 36.7 % respectively. The highest proportion of healthcare workers, 91%, reported having 1 to 5 years of experience which affects knowledge levels. The attitude level of a participant in this survey is categorized into 3 which are good, fair, and poor which are 49.1%, 20.7%, and 30.2%. The attitudes of participants into three groups: good, fair, and poor, which represent 49.1%, 20.7%, and 30.2%, respectively. A good attitude is defined as falling between80% to 100%, a fair attitude as falling between “60% to 80%”, and anything less than 60% is considered a poor attitude towards early mobilization of healthcare providers. Thus knowledge of health care providers is significantly associated with early mobilization and also attitude of health care providers is significantly associated with early mobilization.

Conclusion: The knowledge, attitudes and practices hurdles of Healthcare providers about EM   in ICUs of critically ill patients manifest some positive attitudinal traits and bring out the different obstacles that may be overcome by raising awareness among healthcare professionals and the administration because at overall the knowledge level of health care workers were fair and also need to improve the knowledge of health care providers towards EM of patients. For this government of the health ministry should introduce a syllabus by skilled physiotherapists for the betterment of knowledge in the healthcare sector.  

Keywords:   early mobilization, intensive care unit (ICU), knowledge, attitude, health care providers, critically ill patients, intensive care unit acquired weakness (ICUAW).