Effects of Training on High Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen Therapy on Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge Levels: A Randomized Controlled Study

Background: High-flow nasal cannula (HFNC) is a safe and effective form of noninvasive ventilation for children with respiratory distress. Pediatric high-flow nasal cannula has been successfully implemented in resource-limited settings; however, little is known about the nursing training required to integrate HFNC into care.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the effect of training on nurses’ knowledge levels regarding HFNC oxygen therapy.

Methods: This randomized, controlled, experimental study was registered on clinicaltrials. gov under registration number NCT05362279. The study was conducted with 70 nurses working in the pediatric clinics of a public hospital between December 2021 and May 2022. Half of the nurses were assigned to the experimental group (n=35) and the other half to the control group (n=35). Two data collection tools were used: the Sociodemographic Characteristics Questionnaire and the High Flow Nasal Cannula Oxygen Therapy Questionnaire. The nurses in the experimental group received training immediately after the pre-test. The training lasted about an hour, and the posttest was administered one month after the training. Descriptive analysis was performed, and the study data were analyzed. Because they were not normally distributed, the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, and Wilcoxon test were used for data analysis. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: There was no significant difference between the nurses in the experimental and control groups regarding age, sex, education level, length of service in the profession, length of service in the current clinic, the clinic they worked in, and previous training on oxygen administration. The median posttest knowledge score of the nurses in the experimental group increased after the training. While there was no difference between the pretest scores of the nurses in the experimental and control groups, there was a significant difference between their posttest scores.

Conclusion: The training given to the nurses increased their knowledge levels about high-flow nasal cannula oxygen therapy. Providing such training to nurses can help eliminate their knowledge gaps in clinical practice.