This is a qualitative study with nurses who currently work and previously worked in an intensive care unit within the hospital Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Permission to access the previous nurses was approved by the nursing coordinator and the human resource manager of the hospital. A total of thirteen nurses were invited to participate in the study, however only six agreed to participate. The nurses ranged from 23 to 42 years of age. They were all female. The participants also had additional certifications and qualifications: one in trauma and neurology, one in vocational teaching education, and one in emergency and trauma. The other three had no additional area of expertise. The nurses ranged in various levels of working experience from three months to eight years with intensive care unit experience from three months to six years. All the participants signed consents and the confidentially of the people were maintained by providing each participant a letter E for enfermeira (Translated: nurse), followed by a sequential number.
After data collection the information was compiled in a semi-structured form with three guiding questions: Tell me, what do you mean by sepsis? What are the factors that are triggers of sepsis? What do you do to prevent the onset of sepsis? An additional instrument was the use of a diary. The Ethics Committee of the Pesquisa da Unijuí approved the study. The questions clearly ask the nurse the question to ascertain knowledge on the topic of sepsis. The second question asks about triggers of sepsis. The third and final question addresses the studies evaluation of the nurse's knowledge on the prevention of sepsis in-patient. The questions are clear-cut and appear if answered would be able to appropriately ascertain the nurses knowledge of the subject being studied. .
Literature Review.
The author cites multiple articles that address sepsis. No articles cited appear to find the knowledge base that a nurse may have pertaining to the topic of sepsis.