Nurses’ Beliefs About Caring for Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract

Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their families rely on health care providers, particularly nurses, to provide accurate information, yet inaccurate beliefs about TBI have been found among nurses. Although prior studies have assessed nurses' beliefs about TBI recovery and rehabilitation, none have assessed specific beliefs about the nursing role to care for these patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' beliefs and learning preferences about caring for patients with moderate-to-severe TBI. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 513 nurses at a Midwestern hospital between October and December 2014 (20.3% response rate). Latent class analysis was used. Findings showed that nurses had inaccurate beliefs about TBI relating to recovery and the nursing role, and had significant differences in learning preferences. These findings have implications for development of educational and training interventions specific to nurses to ensure that they have factual information about TBI and to clarify the nursing role.

Pediatric nurses’ perceived knowledge and beliefs of evidence‐based practice in the care of children and adolescents with moderate‐to‐severe traumatic brain injury

“…More specifically, in another study, nurses caring for adult patients with moderate-to-severe TBI had similar inaccurate beliefs about treatment and sex-based patient differences after TBI (Oyesanya, Thomas, et al, 2016). The presence of inaccurate beliefs may suggest that nurses are providing inaccurate information to patients with TBI and their families (Ernst et al, 2009).…”

“…Data were collected using the Perceptions of Brain Injury Survey (PBIS) (Oyesanya, Brown, et al, 2016; Oyesanya, Thomas, et al, 2016). This survey was created by adapting two surveys: 1) a survey about school speech-language pathologists’ perceived knowledge, perceived confidence, and beliefs to provide services to students with TBI (severity level unspecified) (Hux, Walker, & Sanger, 1996); and 2) a survey on nurses’ perceived knowledge regarding care of patients with mild TBI (Watts et al, 2011).…”

“…When caring for adult patients with moderate-to-severe TBI, research indicates that nurses who care for these patients more frequently have high levels of perceived confidence but low levels of evidence-based perceived knowledge (Oyesanya, Brown, & Turkstra, 2016). In addition, nurses’ level of evidence-based perceived knowledge was related to their clinical expertise (Oyesanya, Brown, et al, 2016; Oyesanya, Thomas, Brown, & Turkstra, 2016). Although not specific to care of children and adolescents with moderate-to-severe TBI, these findings have already suggested the need for additional nurse training and education specific to evidence-based guidelines and integration into nursing care.…”

Nursing Education, Trauma and Care in the Intensive Care

“…Findings showed that nurses had inaccurate beliefs about TBI relating to recovery and the nursing role, and had significant differences in learning preferences. These findings have implications for development of educational and training interventions specific to nurses to ensure that they have factual information about TBI and to clarify the nursing role [1].…”

“…The purpose of this study was to investigate nurses' beliefs and learning preferences about caring for patients with moderate-to-severe TBI [1]. A cross-sectional survey was administered to 513 nurses at a Midwestern hospital between October and December 2014 (20.3% response rate).…”