Sajjad S. Issa^1,, Kadim Jawad AL Madwah¹, Hajer Salim Al Mosawi¹

Every year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm (before 37 completed weeks of gestation), and this number is rising. Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of death among children under 5 years of age, responsible for nearly 1 million deaths. Our aims were to evaluate of nurse's knowledge in management of premature baby in neonatal units (PBU). To find out relationship between socio demographic variables and nurses knowledge. To determine the relation between the experience and level of knowledge. A selected sample study carried out in four general hospital in Basra-Iraq: Basra general hospital, Almoani general hospital, Qurna general hospital and Basra hospital for Maternity and childhood. A sample of 40 nurses was included and interviewed for the purpose of the study . The enquiry forma consist of 2 part, one for the demographic data, the second part concern with evaluation of the nursing intervention for management of premature babies units, which was done by the resident doctors in these units. The second part consist of 14 items represent the roles of nurses in the PBU. Likert Scale has been used for the evaluation scores. The data has been fed in SPSS program for statistical purposes. The study Showed that 90% of the nurses was females and 10% was males, 32 % were at age interval of 20 to 29 years and 50 % were between 30 to 49 years. 15 % were at 50 to 59 years.57.5 % of the nurses are graduated from secondary school, 32.5 % are graduated from health institute, and 7.5 % from intermediate school and 2.5 % are from college. 30 % of the nurses were having 1 to 5 years of experience in the PBU, 25 % were having 11 to 15 years, 12.5 % having 6 to 10 years, 5 % having 21 years, 2.5 % having less than one years. Only 7.5 % had a participation in training session. The mean evaluation score is 73.9 %, the minimum score is 57 %, and the maximum score is 92 %. At Basra, hospital for Maternity and childhood had the highest score 77 %, and followed by Amwani general hospital 76.56 %, then Quran general hospital 75 %, and lastly Basra general hospital 66 %. There is significant correlation between the scores that the nurses got and the years of their experiences.

Evaluation of Nurse's, Knowledge in Management, Premature Baby