Nurses Knowledge on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and Management of Risk Factors

Harriet Kemunto Mesa. Nurses knowledge on sudden infant death syndrome and management of risk factors. Bachelor’s thesis. Supervisor – assoc. prof. Alina Vaškelytė. Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Medical Academy, Faculty of Nursing, Department of Nursing. Kaunas, 2023. 55p. Purpose of the work: To determine nurses’ knowledge on sudden infant death syndrome and management of risk factors. Research objectives:

1. To examine nurses’ knowledge on SIDS.
2. To examine nurses’ knowledge on the safe sleep position for infants.
3. To determine nurses’ actions and recommendations for management of SIDS risk factors. Research methodology: The quantitative study was carried out in Transnzoia referral hospital Kitale from 2022 December 12th until 2023 March 15th. The research instrument used was the author's own questionnaire consisting of 22 questions. All data was stored in Google Forms. The target samples of the study were nurses who worked in all departments at Transnzoia government hospital. With the hospital data repository, we hoped to include all nurses from the hospitals who met the requirements. There was a total of 197 nurses at the study sites and 63 nurses (31.98%) nurses actually responded to the survey. Conclusions of the work: 1. Nurses had good knowledge on SIDS environmental risk factors, maternal risk factors, American academy of pediatrics recommendation and infant sleep environment. Lack of consistency in nursing knowledge and practice about sound infant sleep was noted. 2. “Back to Sleep”, a campaign by the AAP is the recommended safe sleep practice. Basing on nurses’ knowledge on infant sleep position the majority of nurses considered lateral/side to be the safest sleep position in relation to its effect of reducing the risk of SIDS. Practical observation should play a significant part in this effort to increase knowledge and give parents role models for improved practice. 3. On nurses actions and recommendation in management of SIDS risk factors, majority of nurses were highly confident in their understanding of SIDS and provided effective education on SIDS-related safe sleep practices and infant feeding. Re-evaluation on the parent’s knowledge and practice about SIDS was often performed.