Knowledge, practice, and factors associated with electrocardiography interpretation among nurses working in adult emergency and critical care units at selected governmental hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2023: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundElectrocardiography (ECG) is a noninvasive diagnostic method used to examine electrical and muscular cardiac activity. It is usually the first-line diagnostic tool for patients with chest pain. Late recognition of electrocardiography abnormalities can cause in-hospital cardiac arrest, further complicate care, increase the cost of health care, and prolong admission. Hence, the objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, practice, and associated factors of nurses regarding the interpretation of electrocardiography.MethodsA cross-sectional study was carried out on 334 nurses working at randomly selected public hospitals from March 06, 2023, to April 05, 2023. Since our study populations were less than the calculated sample size, all nurses who fulfilled the inclusion criteria were included. The collected data were coded and cleaned using EpiData version 4.2 and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25. Both bivariate and multivariate logistic regression was run to find an association between dependent and independent variables. Odds ratios (ORs) with 95% confidence levels were used to measure the strength of associations.ResultsA total of 334 nurses responded to the survey, yielding a 93% response rate. Only 15.4% and 9% of them had satisfactory knowledge and good practice, respectively. Nurses who had 2-4 years of experience in the current unit were 3.13 times more likely (AOR = 3.13 (1.23, 7.92) to have sufficient knowledge. Nurses working in cardiac care units were 3.45 times more likely to have good practices than those working in intensive care units (AOR = 3.45 (1.02, 13.73)).ConclusionThe study revealed that educational qualifications, in-service training, and current working units were significantly associated with nurses' knowledge and practice of electrocardiography interpretation. The concerned body must provide continuous on-the-job training related to ECG interpretation to all nurses working in adult emergency and critical care unit.