Pulse oximetry (PO) is the one of most commonly used non-invasive medical device that evaluates the patient’s oxygen saturation in the peripheral arteries (SpO2). Thus, it alerts healthcare professionals and allow early detection of hypoxaemia in patients that requires prompt treatment. PO has become an essential tool that widely used in monitoring patients’ clinical conditions in intensive care, perioperative care, emergency care, acute and sub-acute healthcare environments (World Health Organization, 2016). A recent study has confirmed that use of PO is associated with substantial reduced incidence of hypoxaemia in preoperative period (as cited in Seeley, McKenna, & Hood, 2015).
Despite the benefits of PO, nurses …show more content…
In the first stage, a computerized search was performed and found 389 references. In the second stage, 376 references were eliminated for the reason of topic, or either because they were specific to a certain disease condition or they are focused on other health professionals. In the third stage, total of 13 articles read of which 2 literature reviews were eliminated and other 7 studies on the ground of content and the description were not focused on the reviewing topic. Finally, a total of 4 articles were included in this review.
Results
The following search strategy produced a total of 4 quality researches that conducted after 2010 which were specified to examine nurses’ knowledge of pulse oximetry. Three of these studies have used a prospective design while the remaining study has used a retrospective design. Two of prospective designed studies are multi-centred and have collected data using true or false and multiple choice questionnaires. The other prospective study has collect data by observations. The retrospective designed study was a qualitative study that has conducted individual open ended interviews.
The population of these studies were experienced nurses who are working in intensive care unit (ICU), anaesthesiology, neonatology, emergency departments and graduate nurses. The majority of the population were women …show more content…
The nurses who worked in anaesthesiology department and graduate nurses have more than 50% of correct response rate for 13 out of 21 questionnaire items. More than half of emergency nurses who took part in the study have provided accurate response for 13 out of 21 questionnaire items. The results of the studies have revealed that ICU nurses have significantly higher knowledge of PO than the nurses who works in other areas and graduate nurses. The result of ICU nurses’ knowledge is not unexpected considering they have more experience, skills and understanding about critical care (Kiekkas, et al., 2012 and Seeley, McKenna, & Hood,