Abstract:

The purpose of the study was to assess Nursing Competences in the Care of Spinal Cord Injured Patients in Accident and Emergency/Orthopedics Department UPTH. Observational research design was used, Instruments for data collection was source from the primary sources using developed Spinal Cord Injured Assessment Questionnaire, using descriptive statistical tools simple averages. The results however revealed that; Nurses competences in diagnoses and assessment shows a total means of 2.3, nursing intervention 2.30, militating factors such as physical factor shows a total mean of 3.13 and Psychological factor 3.02 in the care of SCI patients. Hypothesis H₁: The emergency/orthopedic nurses at Accident and Emergency Department in UPTH are competent in the management of spinal cord injured patients. H₂: There are no mitigating factors against the care of spinal cord injured patients. It was therefore Recommended that management of the UPTH, should work on the militating factors, against the nurses for effective nursing care of spinal cord injured patients. Only Emergency/Spinal/Orthopedic specialist trained nurses should be posted to accident and emergency Department of the trauma unit for effective management. The community and insurance companies should work in the welfare and rehabilitation of the patients.

Keywords: UPTH, spinal cord, Orthopedic, Emergency, Competence, Port-Harcourt.

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