Knowledge and Behaviour of Nurses Towards Care of Elderly Stroke Patients in Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Care of elderly stroke patients remains a high priority agenda in many countries around the world as disability and death are common sequalae posing a public health menace for health service providers. This study was carried out among 100 nurses; it investigated knowledge as well as behavior towards care of elderly stroke patients. Specific objectives were geared to determine knowledge of nurses on elderly stroke patient care; behavior of nurses towards elderly stroke patient and to determine the relationship between nurses knowledge and behavior towards elderly stroke patient care. A descriptive survey design was employed for the selected nurses from the two main hospitals in Bayelsa State, utilizing convenient sampling method. Age range of the nurses was 20-65 years and mean age of 37.5 of whom 35% were males and 65% females. Result indicates that knowledge was moderate (50-69) to excellent (70-100) for 71% of the nurses and behavior was also moderate or good or acceptable (50-69) or very good to excellent behavior (70-100) for 86% of nurses. However, only a few nurses answered all the knowledge questions correctly and had doubt on the cure of stroke. Furthermore, there existed a relationship between nurses knowledge and behavior towards care of elderly stroke patient and being significant at p = 0.001, for p<0.05. There is the urgent need therefore, to properly tailor the knowledge and behavior of nurses for enhanced care of elderly stroke patients.