Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease remains a major cause of
mortality and morbidity in the intensive care unit, nebulizers is treat certain respiratory
diseases through the use of compressed liquid drugs to relieve respiratory
insufficiency due to bronchospasm. Nurses must be knowledgeable to support clinical
practice toward nebulizer therapy for patient with COPD to achieve best outcomes for
patientsandsuccessful treatment process. Aim: Assess nurses' performance regarding
care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease on nebulizer. Research
Design:A descriptive exploratory design was used.Settings:The study was conducted
atmedicine intensive care unit 2 affiliated to Ain Shams University hospital. Sample:
A convenience sample of 30 nurses in the previous mentioned setting. Tools for Data
Collection: data was collected by using Nurses' self-administered Questionnaire and
Nurse's observational checklist. Result: the present study reveals that,76.7% of studied
nurses didn't attend training courses about nebulizer therapy,53.3% of studied nurses
were unsatisfactory level of knowledge, 66.7% of studied nurses were incompetent level
of practice. Also, there were highly statistically significant correlation between total
score of knowledge of the studied nurse's and their total score of practice. Conclusion:
The study revealed that lack of nurses' knowledge and inadequate training regarding
nebulizer therapy which affected negatively on their practice when caring patients with
COPD. Additionally there were highly statistically significant correlation between total
score of knowledge of the studied nurse's and total score of practice.
Recommendations: Replication of the current study on large sample and different
hospitals settings to be able to generalize the results.