Impact of an Educational Intervention on Nurses' Knowledge of Port Catheter Management: A Quasi-Experimental Pre-Post Study.

Background

Implanted port catheters are widely used in oncology care to provide reliable long-term venous access. Safe management of these devices requires adequate nursing knowledge to prevent complications such as catheter dysfunction, infection, and chemotherapy extravasation. Despite their clinical importance, previous studies have demonstrated considerable deficiencies in nurses' knowledge regarding implanted port catheter care. This study aimed to evaluate the short-term effect of a structured educational intervention on nurses' knowledge of implanted port catheter management.

Methods

A single-group pre-post quasi-experimental study was conducted in a public hospital in Istanbul, Türkiye, in July 2025. One hundred and one registered nurses completed the pre-test, and 73 participants who completed both assessments were included in the paired analysis. Participants attended a standardized evidence-based educational session covering port catheter insertion, maintenance, complication prevention, and extravasation management. Knowledge was assessed immediately before and after the intervention using a 20-item Port Catheter Knowledge Assessment Form. Data were analysed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and McNemar test.

Results

The mean knowledge score increased significantly from 9.72 ± 6.14 before the intervention to 15.12 ± 1.97 after the intervention (p < 0.001), representing a large effect size (rank-biserial correlation = 0.883). Statistically significant improvements were observed in 15 of the 20 knowledge items following the educational intervention (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

The educational intervention was associated with significant short-term improvements in nurses' knowledge of implanted port catheter management. These findings support the value of structured educational programmes for improving knowledge; however, further studies are needed to determine whether these gains are sustained over time and translate into improvements in clinical practice and patient outcomes.