Knowledge and practice in cardiovascular disease prevention among hospital registered nurses: a cross‐sectional study

Aims and objectives To investigate the knowledge and clinical practices of cardiovascular disease prevention among registered nurses who worked on three major clinical units in Beijing hospitals. Background Health education on cardiovascular disease prevention is an important component of nursing practice; however, Chinese registered nurses’ knowledge and practice patterns have been poorly explored in previous studies. Design A cross‐sectional study. Methods A stratified random sample of three hundred registered nurses was recruited from two tertiary hospitals in Beijing, China. A validated questionnaire was used to examine nurses’ knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors, their practices and perceived barriers to cardiovascular disease prevention‐related patient education. The differences in knowledge of cardiovascular disease risk factors and the practice pattern associated with cardiovascular disease prevention were compared among nurses who worked on three major clinical units. Results Questionnaires were completed by 273 registered nurses with a response rate of 91%. More than 75% of the registered nurses knew the cardiovascular disease risk factors; however, less than half knew the right target goals for cardiovascular disease risk factors. Notably, fewer than 70% of registered nurses routinely provided health education for cardiovascular disease prevention during their practice. There was inconsistency between registered nurses’ knowledge of target goals for cardiovascular disease risk reduction and their education practices on cardiovascular disease prevention. The three major barriers to providing cardiovascular disease risk factor preventive education were lack of time, patients’ reluctance to change lifestyle and lack of physicians’ support. Conclusions Not all of the registered nurses were motivated to educate and encourage patients to engage healthy lifestyle changes, even though most of them were knowledgeable about cardiovascular disease risk factors. A gap between the knowledge and practice for the prevention of cardiovascular disease was identified. Relevance to clinical practice The findings highlight the need to advocate for knowledge application and address knowledge deficits in the area of cardiovascular disease prevention among registered nurses.