Factors Affecting Nursing Care Of Patients With Burns On Surgical Ward At St. Francis Hospital Mutolere Kisoro District

Burns are a major public health issue worldwide, but they are especially severe in low- and
middle-income countries (LMIC). In both developing and developed countries, burn is a major
public health concern in terms of infection control and treatment costs. The main purpose of the
study was to explore factors affecting nursing care of patients with burns on surgical ward at St
Francis Hospital Mutolere. The study was designed to achieve the following objectives; to
determine health workers related factors affecting nursing care of patients with burns on surgical
ward at St Francis Hospital Mutolere and to find out patient related factors affecting nursing care
given to patients with burns on surgical ward at St Francis Hospital Mutolere.
Methodology: In this a descriptive cross-sectional study, data collection was conducted on 10
nurses and 20 patients and care givers in a period of two weeks using an interviewer
administered structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling procedure sampling was used to
select respondents from surgical ward. To analyze all data was cleaned then entered in the
Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 16.
Results: Majority of the respondents said that they always have 2-3 staffs on duty per shift, 30%
3-4 staffs while 10% said they usually have 1-2 staffs on duty per shift.
Conclusion: The care received by patients with burns was less optimal. The results revealed that
majority (84.2%) of the respondents said they were dressed once in a day while 15.8% were
dressed twice in a day. The patients who were dressed once in a day may easily contract
infections unless other measures are taken. The care of patients was a associated with health
worker related factors such as; cadre or rank of health worker, work experience and number of
health workers on the ward per day. The care was also linked to patient/caregiver related factors
such as; distance to health facility, number of days of admission and feeding