An assessment of Nurses' knowledge, attitude and practice of emergency care related to road traffic accident victims at three selected hospitals in Rwanda

INTRODUCTION: Quality emergency nursing care is an important variable in reducing death and disability due to road traffic accidents (RTA), yet little is known about emergency nursing care within the Rwandan context. This study aims to describe the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of nurses of the emergency care of RTA patients. METHOD: We employed a cross sectional design to survey the full cohort of nurses working in Accident and Emergency (A&E) units in three selected Rwandan hospitals (N = 51). RESULTS: This study revealed that the knowledge and practice of nurses is either high or very high and the majority of them (73.657%) had a positive attitude towards emergency management of RTA patients. Being trained before working in A&E units was associated with a significant increase in the likelihood of being at the level of practice which is (1) very high (OR = 5.35, 95%, CI = 5.20–5.50), (2) high (OR = 1.60, 95%, CI = 1.17–2.19) (3), moderate (OR = 5.35,95%, CI = 4.15–6.88) and (4) low (OR = 1.33,95%, CI = 1.33–133) and it decreased more than 99.9% the likelihood of being at low level of practice in all levels. DISCUSSION: The study showed that training had a significant effect on practice and this is supported by previous studies. Training interventions to improve the management of RTA patients by nurses working in A&E should be regularly audited to ensure ongoing quality of care.