Elsevier

Nurse Education Today

Volume 26, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 71-77
Nurse Education Today

Paediatric fever management: Continuing education for clinical nurses

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2005.07.007Get rights and content

Summary

Purpose

This study examined the influence of level of practice, additional paediatric education and length of paediatric and current experience on nurses’ knowledge of and beliefs about fever and fever management.

Method

Fifty-one nurses from medical wards in an Australian metropolitan paediatric hospital completed a self-report descriptive survey.

Results

Knowledge of fever management was mediocre (Mean 12.4, SD 2.18 on 20 items). Nurses practicing at a higher level and those with between one and four years paediatric or current experience were more knowledgeable than novices or more experienced nurses. Negative beliefs that would impact nursing practice were identified. Interestingly, beliefs about fever, antipyretic use in fever management and febrile seizures were similar; they were not influenced by nurses’ knowledge, experience, education or level of practice.

Conclusions

Paediatric nurses are not expert fever managers. Knowledge deficits and negative attitudes influence their practice irrespective of additional paediatric education, paediatric or current experience or level of practice. Continuing education is therefore needed for all paediatric nurses to ensure the latest clear evidence available in the literature for best practice in fever management is applied.

Section snippets

Background

For more than two decades there has been strong evidence-based support for the beneficial effects of mild fever (e.g., Kluger, 1986, Kluger, 1992, Lorin, 1999, Sarrell et al., 2002). Despite this, reports of nurses’ fever phobia, negative beliefs toward fever and fears of febrile seizures remain unchanged (May and Bauchner, 1992, Poirier et al., 2000, Sarrell et al., 2002). Nurses continue to reduce low grade fever without other symptoms, wake sleeping febrile children for antipyretics and

Research design

A cross-sectional design utilising a self-report, self-administered survey was employed.

Sample

All nurses (100%) in a targeted convenience sample of 51 Level 1 and Level 2 registered nurses (nurses) employed to work in the two medical wards of a metropolitan, paediatric hospital in Australia participated. As expected, the majority were female (84%), employed full time (73%) at Level 1 (84%). The highest academic qualification of more than half was a diploma/degree (59%); one-quarter (28%) had

Results

The two areas examined, knowledge and beliefs, will be discussed separately. Table 1 provides a detailed description of the nurses’ knowledge by the independent variables.

Discussion

Fever management is an integral aspect of paediatric nursing practice. Findings strongly suggest the paediatric nurses studied were not expert fever managers. Although those practicing at a higher level and with between one and four year’s paediatric or current experience had more accurate knowledge than their co-workers, they were not experts, their knowledge was mediocre. Discovering that knowledge did not influence these nurses’ beliefs is important for clinical practice as many educational

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