[Southern European intensive care nurses' knowledge of evidence-based guidelines for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia]

Objectives: To assess Southern European intensive care unit nurses' knowledge about evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia and to compare these findings with a pan-European perspective.

Design: A sub-analysis from an observational study performed using a 9-questions, multiple-choice questionnaire performed during the period October 2006 - March 2007.

Setting: Six Southern European countries, selected from 22 participant European countries.

Participants: Volunteer nurses from intensive care units.

Results: 3329 questionnaires were obtained, 1182 of them belonging to Southern European countries with a 75.8% response rate. Global average score was 45.1%, being it significantly better in the South of Europe (46.6%, P<.001). A linear multiple regression analysis showed that years of working experience (per class of increase) (B=0.154 ± (SD) 0.045) (95% CI (0.066-0.242))(p=0.001) and working in a smaller intensive care unit (B=-0.210 ± (SD) 0.059)((95% CI) -0.326-0.094)(P<.001) was independently associated with better test scores.

Conclusions: Southern European critical care nurses' knowledge about ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention is poor, but significantly better than in the pan-European countries.