title: Renal unit practitioners' knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding the safety of unfractionated heparin for chronic haemodialysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic haemodialysis for adult patients with end-stage kidney failure requires a patent extracorporeal circuit, maintained by anticoagulants such as unfractionated heparin (UFH). Incorrect administration of UFH has safety implications for patients.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Firstly, to describe renal practitioners' self-reported knowledge, attitudes and practice (KAP) regarding the safe use of UFH and its effects; secondly, to determine an association between KAP and selected independent variables.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional descriptive survey by self-administered questionnaire and non-probability convenience sampling was conducted in two tertiary hospital dialysis units and five private dialysis units in 2013.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of 74/77 respondents (96.1%), was 41.1 years. Most (41/77, 53.2%) had 0-5 years of renal experience. The odds of enrolled nurses having poorer knowledge of UFH than registered nurses were 18.7 times higher at a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) (1.9-187.4) and statistically significant (P = 0.013). The odds of delivering poor practice having ≤ five years of experience and no in-service education were 4.6 times higher at a 95% CI (1.4-15.6), than for respondents who had ≥ six years of experience (P = 0.014) and 4.3 times higher (95% CI 1.1-16.5) than for respondents who received in-service education (P = 0.032), the difference reaching statistical significance in both cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results suggest that the category of the professional influences knowledge and, thus, safe use of UFH, and that there is a direct relationship between years of experience and quality of haemodialysis practice and between having in-service education and quality of practice.
authors: Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Cape Town. d.ockhuis@uct.ac.za.
authors: Debra
authors: D
authors: Ockhuis
authors: Una
authors: U
authors: Kyriacos
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006490:Hemostatics / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000451:nursing / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009736:Nursing Process; D061214:Patient Safety; D006435:Renal Dialysis; D013019:South Africa; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D006490:Hemostatics