Evaluation of the nurses' understanding of disease prevention and health promotion in primary health care centres in Al-Diwaniyah

Abstract

Background: Nurses working in primary health care settings, do a huge job in health promotion as well as disease prevention, but in Iraq, especially inside primary health care, what they actually know about these things is still not clearly, and sort of not properly, recorded. Objective: This study aimed to find out how good the nurses knowledge levels are, regarding health promotion and disease prevention, at primary healthcare clinics in Al-Diwaniyah municipality Iraq. Methods: We did a descriptive study from January 15, until May 26 2023 across 11 primary healthcare centres in Al-Diwaniyah city. We selected, in a fairly random way, a total of 150 nurses. Data was gathered through a structured questionnaire, using a personal interview approach, and each interview took about 10 minutes. The questionnaire was checked and validated by the Iraqi Ministry of Health. It had four main parts: (1) community partnership and mobilisation; (2) the local council of the primary healthcare centre; (3) communication for behaviour modification; and (4) health promotion and disease prevention. For the analysis we used the weighted average method. Results: Overall, the study sample showed very strong knowledge in health promotion and disease prevention, and this was seen in all the four measured domains. Conclusions: Nurses in Al-Diwaniyah primary healthcare centres, have a high level of knowledge about health promotion and disease prevention.