title: Perceived and actual level of knowledge of diabetes mellitus among nurses.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to survey staff nurses on their perceived and actual level of knowledge of diabetes mellitus. A convenience sample of 184 professional staff nurses from both inpatient and outpatient settings of a large research-teaching hospital was surveyed. The Diabetes Self-Report Tool (Cronbach's alpha = .91) was used to assess staff nurses' perceptions of knowledge of diabetes mellitus. The Diabetes: Basic Knowledge Test (DBKT; Cronbach's alpha = .79) was used to measure the actual level of knowledge of diabetes mellitus. The data were analyzed with Pearson's correlation coefficients. A moderately low negative correlation (r = -.36, P less than .001) indicated that the staff nurses' perceived knowledge of diabetes mellitus was inversely related to actual knowledge. Subjects were found to have a mean score of 64% on the DBKT. Study findings raise questions as to the adequacy of staff nurse knowledge of diabetes and the ability of staff nurses to assess themselves for knowledge deficits.
authors.affiliation: National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center, Nursing Department, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Drass
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Muir-Nash
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Boykin
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Turek
authors.forename: K L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Baker
mesh_terms: D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000451:nursing*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States