Knowledge and attitude of nurses regarding stem cells and umbilical cord blood banking in a selected tertiary care facility Venugopal Ambili1,*, Joshi Poonam2, Deka Dipika3, Seth Tulika4 1Lecturer, Pal College of Nursing and Medical Sciences, Haldwani, Uttarakhand 2Lecturer, College of Nursing, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi 3Professor, Chief Fetal Medicine, Department of OBG, AIIMS, New Delhi 4Additional Professor, Department of Hematology, AIIMS, New Delhi *Corresponding Author Email: ambili91@gmail.com
Online published on 15 October, 2016. Abstract Background Umbilical cord blood banking (UCBB) was alien concept in India until a few years back and now it is gaining popularity. Method A cross sectional survey was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of 56 nurses enrolled from the labour room and maternity ward of the facility. Pre-validated and tested self-developed knowledge questionnaire and attitude scale were used to collect data regarding stem cells and UCBB. Results Most of the nurses had good knowledge (42.86%) and neutral attitude (78.6%) with a mean knowledge and attitude score of 16.84 ± 4.59 and 53.75 ± 8.26 respectively. None of the nurses received any pre-service or in-service education regarding stem cells and UCBB, however 17 nurses assisted/witnessed UCBB and all these nurses were from labour room. All of the nurses expressed that they wanted to have more information regarding stem cells and UCBB. Majority (62.5%) of the nurses had heard about UCBB and reported other health care workers (74.28%) as their knowledge source. There was a positive correlation between knowledge and attitude scores of nurses (r=0.532, p<0.01). Nurses who witnessed/assisted UCBB had significantly higher knowledge (p=0.01) and attitude (p=0.009) scores than that of nurses who did not witnessed/assisted. Participants who heard about UCBB earlier had significantly better knowledge (p=0.0008) than those who did not heard about UCBB. Attitude scores of the nurses was significantly associated with their professional educational status ((p=0.026). Conclusion Nurses had good knowledge and neutral attitude regarding stem cells and UCBB. They wanted to have more information. Top Keywords Stem cells, stem cells banking, Umbilical cord blood (UCB), Umbilical Cord Blood Banking (UCBB), UCBB, Nurses. Top |