Background:

The APACHE (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation) II Scoring System is a tool used to evaluate disease and mortality prediction in the intensive care units (ICUs). In June 2013, it was introduced in a medical ICU where the APACHE II scores are tabulated and accessible from the patients’ data system. As the primary users of APACHE II are physicians, the ICU nurses’ knowledge of the APACHE II scores is unknown.

Objective:

This study aimed to explore the ICUs nurses’ knowledge and perceptions towards APACHE II scoring system.

Methods:

The study utilized an explorative-descriptive design. From 26 November to 9 December 2013, registered nurses with at least 1 year of ICU working experience were issued with questionnaires comprising 11 multiple-choice questions seeking their knowledge of APACHE II and 18 statements using five-points Likert scale seeking their perceptions on the scoring system. The results were analyzed using SPSS version 19.

Results:

There were 55 respondents with less than 5 years of ICU working experience. Seventy-four percent of them scored above the mean knowledge score of 7. Majority of them (n = 48) were able to answer the purpose of APACHE II accurately. Although APACHE II was relatively new in the setting, 83.6% were keen to learn.

Discussion:

They opined that nurses should be included to use APACHE II as well (n = 33). Eighty percent of the respondents believed APACHE was useful and important in the development of communication strategies with both patients and family.

Conclusion:

The results from the survey illustrated that the ICU nurses have positive perceptions of the APACHE II scoring system. The results suggest that it could be utilized by the nurses in their critical care practice to enable them to evaluate patient's disease severity and ICU mortality prediction.

International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare © 2014 The Joanna Briggs Institute