Nurses' knowledge regarding patients with intravenous catheters and phlebitis interventions.

This study was planned and applied in 2 stages. Stage I was applied to determine the knowledge of nurses working in the internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and other services in Celal Bayar University Hospital about using intravenous catheter and intravenous fluid treatment, and the symptoms and treatment procedure for phlebitis. Stage II consisted of observation of all patients who had intravenous catheters for symptoms of phlebitis for 5 days and the interventions the nurses used for the patients who had phlebitis. In stage I, questionnaires were used to determine the knowledge of the nurses; in stage II, 2 investigators observed the patients. Results were evaluated using SPSS software with chi(2) statistical analysis. Nurses were found to have high knowledge levels, but their practices were not suitable to their knowledge levels. Of the patients who participated in the study, 67.24% showed symptoms of phlebitis. We found that there was a significant relationship (P <.05) between the selection of the vein and the occurrence of phlebitis in patients who had an intravenous catheter. We also found that the relationships between the age groups of the patients and phlebitis and the relationships between the diagnosis and phlebitis were statistically significant (P <.05).