Abstract:
ABSTRACT
Background: Traumatic brain Injury (TBI) represents a significant cause of morbidity and
mortality worldwide. Road traffic crashes accounts for a substantial proportion of TBI
injuries; however, access to neurosurgical care in low-income countries is poor. A
retrospective observational study of Traumatic brain injury patients attended at Muhimbili
Orthopedic Institute (MOI) showed that some of the TBI hospitalized patients died due to the
severity of the condition and others due to aspiration pneumonia. Nurses' performance on the
caring of patients with TBI is important to improve patients' outcome and reduce mortality.
Aim: To assess factors which influencing nurses’ performances of caring for traumatic brain
injuries patients at tertiary facilities in Tanzania.
Methods: The study used a descriptive cross-sectional design. The sample size was 181
nurses, selected from two tertiary hospitals, namely; Muhimbili Orthopaedic Institute (MOI)
and Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH) at Mloganzila. Simple random sampling was used to
select potential study respondents. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire
and rating checklist. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS)
version 23.0. Mean score was used to measure nurses’ performance in caring for TBI patients.
Chi-square test assessed factors influenced the nurses' performance in caring for TBI patients.
A p-value less than 0.05 was considered to have influenced the dependent and independent
variables.
Results: Of 181 respondents (54, 29.8%) were male. Respondents’ age varied between 24
years and 56 years with a mean age of 34.2 years and standard deviation ±6.49. A large
proportion of respondents (89, 49.2%) were educated up to diploma level. More than half (96,
53%) had poor performance in caring for the TBI patients due to individual and organizational
factors, individual factors were: - age, gender, level of education, working area, working
experience in the working station, working load, required TBI education, attending in-service
training on TBI while the organizational factors included;- equipment used to take care of
TBI patients, nurses special training on TBI caring , staff-patient ratio. Overall nurses’
performances mean score was (10143, 74.7%)
