{"id":142565,"date":"2026-08-18T11:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/?p=142565"},"modified":"2026-08-18T11:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T11:03:00","slug":"evidence-based-guidelines-for-the-prevention-of-ventilator-associated-pneumonia-knowledge-adherence-and-perceived-barriers-among-nurses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/evidence-based-guidelines-for-the-prevention-of-ventilator-associated-pneumonia-knowledge-adherence-and-perceived-barriers-among-nurses\/","title":{"rendered":"Evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia: knowledge, adherence and perceived barriers among nurses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong><\/p><p><strong>Background\/Aims<\/strong><\/p><p>Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a common but avoidable healthcare-associated infection in intensive care units, leading to preventable deaths. The study aimed to assess the knowledge of, adherence to and barriers against evidence-based guidelines for preventing ventilator-associated pneumonia among nurses at an intensive care unit in Palestine.<\/p><p><strong>Methods<\/strong><\/p><p>A cross-sectional study was conducted, using a convenience sampling method to recruit 250 intensive care nurses working in the southern region of Palestine. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire comprising four sections: sociodemographic characteristics; knowledge of ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention (scored as a %); adherence to evidence-based guidelines (scored as a %); and barriers to adherence (rated on a 5-point Likert scale). Independent\u00a0<em>t<\/em>-tests, ANOVA and Pearson&#8217;s correlation were used to assess relationships between variables. Significance was set at\u00a0<em>P<\/em>&lt;0.05.<\/p><p><strong>Results<\/strong><\/p><p>Most participant had a moderate or low level of knowledge, while 61.2% reported good adherence to evidence-based guidelines for prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia. Significant positive relationships were found between adherence scores and experience working in intensive care (<em>P<\/em>=0.033) and knowledge scores and completion of specific infection-prevention training (<em>P<\/em>=0.034). Barriers with the highest mean scores were lack of knowledge, lack of educational programmes and lack of time.<\/p><p><strong>Conclusions<\/strong><\/p><p>Intensive care nurses may be lacking knowledge regarding evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, leading to difficulties implementing these guidelines in practice. Adherence may improve with experience working in intensive care, but interventions are needed to improve nurses&#8217; knowledge of infection prevention and ensure that this is translated to practice.<\/p><p><strong>Implications for practice<\/strong><\/p><p>Mentorship programmes should be implemented to enhance adherence to evidence-based guidelines in intensive care units. Incorporating guidelines for ventilator-associated pneumonia prevention into the nursing curriculum should also be considered, to ensure that all nurses are equipped for safe and effective practice.<\/p><p><strong>How to cite<\/strong><\/p><p>Al-Masalmah, N., Ayed, A., Batran, A., Salameh, B., &amp; Ejheisheh, M. A. (2025). Evidence-based guidelines for the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia: knowledge, adherence and perceived barriers among nurses.\u00a0<em>British Journal of Healthcare Management<\/em>,\u00a0<em>31<\/em>(8), 1-12.<\/p><p><strong>View at publisher<\/strong><\/p><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.magonlinelibrary.com\/doi\/full\/10.12968\/bjhc.2025.0102\">https:\/\/www.magonlinelibrary.com\/doi\/full\/10.12968\/bjhc.2025.0102<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[540],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142567,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142565\/revisions\/142567"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paluniv.edu.ps\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}