Girma, Biruk (Assistance professor)Esayas, Abinet2018-06-172023-11-052018-06-172023-11-052017-06http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/1076Background Endotracheal suctioning (ETS) is considered one of the most common procedures in intensive care unit to maintain a patent airway in artificially ventilated patients. However, there are many associated risks and complications like trauma, infection, bleeding, hypoxia, dysrhythmias and, in extreme cases, cardiac arrest and death. Knowledge and practice of Intensive care unit nurses towards endotracheal suctioning is directly related to minimize the above complications, improve standard care, to promote effective/safe suctioning and to reduce length of stay in ICU. So, assessing knowledge and practice of ICU nurses towards endotracheal suctioning is baseline to improve well-being of intubated patients. Objective This study was conducted to assess knowledge and practice of Intensive care unit nurses towards open endotracheal suctioning for mechanically ventilated patient in four selected public hospitals Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2017. Methods: Institutional based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted. Data was collected using structured questionnaire and observational check list. Descriptive statistics included frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation. Odds ratio was used to determine association between variables. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Result: A total of 100 participants were involved in the study with 59% female. The mean age of the participants’ was between 26-30 years and the mean scores of knowledge and practice nurses were 11.14 and 16.11 respectively. Nearly half (51.0%) of nurses had poor knowledge and 41.0% of them had fair knowledge on endotracheal suctioning. and 80.0% had poor practice regarding ETS. Sex had statistically significant association with knowledge (p=.008, AOR and 95% CI 3.336, 1.364- 8.161).Training on ETS had statistically significant association with practice of nurses (p=.025, AOR & 95% of CI 3.372, 1.162-9.788). Conclusion and Recommendation: More than half 51% of nurses had poor knowledge and almost all 80% of nurse’s practice towards ETS was poor. Teaching intervention (especially for females) and training to improve nurse’s knowledge and practice in the care of patients requiring ETS is indicated. Key word: Endotracheal suctioning, knowledge and practice.en-USEndotracheal suctioning; knowledge and practiceThesis