Journal of
Public Health and Epidemiology

  • Abbreviation: J. Public Health Epidemiol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 2141-2316
  • DOI: 10.5897/JPHE
  • Start Year: 2009
  • Published Articles: 655

Full Length Research Paper

Examining the nutritional knowledge of nurses: A theoretical perspective

Aishat T. Bakre1, Ashiyat K. Akodu C.2 and Babatunde A. Akodu3
1No 15 Tates Avenue, Belfast BT9 7BY, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. 2Department of Accident and Emergency, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos, Nigeria. 3Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 12 March 2012
  •  Published: 30 April 2012

Abstract

Nurses have a fundamental responsibility of promoting good health and educating the patients they care for. This research explores nurses’ general knowledge about nutrition and whether the knowledge they have acquired is used in caring for their patients. The MEDLINE and the OVID database were searched for papers relating to the topic from 1990 to 2010 using “nurses and knowledge”, “nurses” “nurses and nutrition” at different times during the search. Additional searches used the CINAHL and EMBASE databases, which brought out results that facilitated the organization of the literature review. The inclusion criteria were studies that specify nutritional knowledge of nurses and the exclusion criteria were studies that investigated other nurse’s clinical knowledge. Fifteen studies that conform to the review criteria were identified. The results indicate that nurses have inadequate nutritional knowledge particularly in relation to when assessing the nutritional status of health care consumers.

 

Key words: Nurses, nutrition, knowledge.