Clinical nurses’ knowledge and practice of venous thromboembolism risk assessment and prevention in South Korea: a cross‐sectional survey

Aims and objectives To examine Korean registered nurses’ level of perceived knowledge and practice of venous thromboembolism risk assessment as well as prevention, self‐efficacy in venous thromboembolism care and actual knowledge of venous thromboembolism. Background For hospitalised patients, venous thromboembolism is a preventable clinical disorder. Caring for venous thromboembolism patients requires coordination across multiple providers and settings. Clinical nurses can play a major role in improving venous thromboembolism prevention care, assessing venous thromboembolism risks and providing appropriate prophylactic measures to those who are at risk for venous thromboembolism. Design A cross‐sectional descriptive study. Methods Anonymous paper‐based surveys were conducted for a convenience sample of registered nurses’ (n = 452) from two university‐affiliated hospitals in South Korea. Results The majority of participants indicated that their overall self‐rated venous thromboembolism knowledge was ‘fair’, while only 2·4% rated it as ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’. The overall mean score of the venous thromboembolism knowledge questions was 50·9 (±13·0) of a possible score of 100. The mean score of self‐efficacy in practising venous thromboembolism prevention/prophylaxis was 3·0 (based on a one to five Likert scale). The self‐reported venous thromboembolism assessment performance on patients varied among clinical units. Only 9·3% of participants reported having received in‐service venous thromboembolism education from their hospital. Conclusions The findings showed that overall venous thromboembolism knowledge and self‐efficacy in venous thromboembolism prevention practices of Korean registered nurses’ were not highly rated. Korean nurses demonstrated a lack of knowledge about venous thromboembolism, particularly in the areas of venous thromboembolism prophylaxis measures and venous thromboembolism diagnosis methods. Relevance to clinical practice Focused education on venous thromboembolism prevention and risk assessment should be considered a component of continuing education for Korean nurses.