Background: Malnutrition contributes significantly to child morbidity and mortality. Nurses\nrequire appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to prevent and treat malnutrition in\nchildren using appropriate guidelines or protocols.\nObjectives: The aim of this article was to assess nurses� knowledge, attitudes towards\nmalnutrition and its management using the World Health Organization (WHO) or United\nNations International Children�s Fund guidelines for the treatment of severely malnourished\nchildren and to evaluate factors associated with their knowledge and attitudes.\nMethods: Participants included 104 nurses working in the outpatient and paediatric units or\ndepartments of four hospitals in Tamale metropolis. An 88-item questionnaire was used to\nmeasure nurses� socio-demographic characteristics as well as their knowledge and attitudes\ntowards malnutrition in children and its management using the WHO guidelines for the\ninpatient treatment of severely malnourished children.\nResults: Nurses� knowledge in malnutrition and its management was slightly above average\n(54.0%), but their attitudes were highly positive. Factors that were associated with nurses�\nknowledge were number of nutrition courses undertaken in nursing school, number of years\nworking as a nurse, receipt of a refresher course on nutrition after school and receipt of training\non the guidelines. Nurses� attitudes were associated with report of having awareness on the\nguidelines, number of years a nurse has been involved in the treatment of a severely\nmalnourished child.\nConclusion: Nurses� knowledge levels in the inpatient treatment of severely malnourished\nchildren were not desirable. However, their attitudes were generally positive. Receipt\nof previous training, awareness of the WHO guidelines, practice experience and\nnumber of years as a nurse significantly affected knowledge and attitude scores in the\npositive direction.
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