Knowledge of methods of assessing the patient’s hydration by nursing staff of surgical and non-surgical departments

Introduction
The assessment of hydration of patients is an important element in patient care and therapy. The aim of the study was to analyse the nursing staff’s knowledge of surgical departments and non-surgical methods for assessing the patient’s hydration status.

Material and methods
The study involved 225 nurses working in wards with a conservative or surgical profile. The study was conducted at the turn of April and May 2019 in the population of nurses of conservative and surgical wards on a social networking site (Facebook), using the Google form. The study used the diagnostic survey method, and the tool was the author’s questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using the StatSoft Statistica 13.1 PL package and the Microsoft Office package.

Results
Nursing staff reached an average level of knowledge about the symptoms of dehydration and overhydration. Half of the respondents showed a low level of knowledge about methods of assessing patients’ hydration. Respondents participating in post-graduate education significantly more often than non-participants had a high level of knowledge about methods of assessing patient hydration (12.5% ​​vs. 2.7%), p <0.03.

Conclusions
The level of knowledge of the respondents about the methods of assessing the hydration of patients was lower than about the symptoms of overhydration and dehydration. It is necessary to broaden these topics during pre- and post-graduate education and to mobilize staff for training.