Assessment of Nursing staff’s Knowledge and Practice regarding Care of Premature Babies in Mosul Teaching Hospitals

Background and aim: Premature is a live born infant delivered before 37 weeks from the first day of last menstrual period .It accounts for the largest number of admissions to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) . Premature infants can develop a range of problems because their organs are not mature enough. The proper nursing care of premature baby should be established by good nursing performances . The purpose of this study is to assess of nursing staff knowledge and practice regarding care of premature babies in Mosul Hospitals in the (Premature babies units). Materials and method: A descriptive design carried throughout the period 2nd of December 2013 to March 2nd 2014 employing quantitative research methods to attain the results. The sample of the study was a non-probability purposive sampling which included all the nurses working in the premature units in these four Hospitals the sample consisted of (60) nurses (females).The data were analyzed using the statistical package for social science (SPSS) program version 17 throughout the application of descriptive statistic (frequency, mean, standard deviation and percentage) and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA-one way test). Results: The findings of the study the Having diploma degree, being 40-49 years old, and more clinical experience Nurses in the Premature babies units increase neonatal nursing knowledge and practices. Conclusions: There are significant differences between knowledge and practice of nursing staff about nursing care for premature babies with regard to age, level of education, and duration of work. Having diploma degree, being 40-49 years old, and more clinical experience in premature babies units increase neonatal nursing knowledge and practices. Recommendation: The study recommends preparing, Nurses should update their knowledge and practice through training courses and training programs for nursing care for premature baby in order to improve their skills and performing statistics by ministry of health of Iraq on the number of premature births in the country in order to reduce this phenomenon and finding appropriate solutions to the problems. Keywords: Nurses, Knowledge, Practice, Premature Babies.