The knowledge about autonomic dysreflexia among nursing and physiotherapy students.

Context/Objective Autonomic dysreflexia is a clinical syndrome affecting persons with spinal cord lesions. The aim of the study was to detect the level of knowledge among students about autonomic dysreflexia in persons with spinal cord lesions.

Design

Single centre questionnaire study.

Setting

Faculty of Health Studies, Rijeka, Croatia.Participants Nursing (n = 43) and physiotherapy (n = 48) students.Outcome Measures: AD knowledge test.

Results

More of the half of the students (57%) had contact with persons with spinal cord lesions during work, especially nursing students. The self-estimated knowledge of autonomic dysreflexia was judged as poor or none in 73.6% of students. On the autonomic dysreflexia knowledge test, nursing students collected mean of 5.6 points and physiotherapy students 4.9 points (P = 0.173). There was no difference in the autonomic dysreflexia test results regardless of work experience or group affiliation.

Conclusion

The level of knowledge about autonomic dysreflexia among students was low. Our results suggest the need for more education of students and health care professionals to apply adequate treatment to persons with episodes of autonomic dysreflexia.