To assess Southern European intensive care unit nurses鈥?knowledge about evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia and to compare these findings with a pan-European perspective.
A sub-analysis from an observational study performed using a 9-questions, multiple-choice questionnaire performed during the period October 2006 - March 2007.
Six Southern European countries, selected from 22 participant European countries.
Volunteer nurses from intensive care units.
3329 questionnaires were obtained, 1182 of them belonging to Southern European countries with a 75.8%response rate. Global average score was 45.1%, being it significantly better in the South of Europe (46.6%, P < .001). A linear multiple regression analysis showed that years of working experience (per class of increase) (B = 0.154 卤 (SD) 0.045) (95%CI (0.066-0.242))(p = 0.001) and working in a smaller intensive care unit (B = 鈭?.210 卤 (SD) 0.059)((95%CI) 鈭?.326-0.094)(P < .001) was independently associated with better test scores.
Southern European critical care nurses鈥?knowledge about ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention is poor, but significantly better than in the pan-European countries.