International Journal of Innovative Research in Health Science

Introduction: Nursing Excellence Certification is critical to enhance the quality of nursing care and advance patient safety. Proper familiarity of these standards by the staff nurses is an indispensable factor to successful implementation and quality improvement in the healthcare facilities. Aim: To evaluate the knowledge level about Nursing Excellence Certification, among staff nurses in Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai and to establish the relationship between the knowledge and the socio-demographic variables chosen. Methodology: The adopted methodology was a quantitative evaluative research design of non-experimental descriptive research design. The participants were chosen using non-probability convenience sampling with sixty staff nurses. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data of socio-demographic variables and 20 multiple-choice questions were used in reference to NABH Nursing Excellence standards. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and Chi-square test. Result: The findings revealed that a majority of staff nurses (57 percent) had average knowledge, a quarter of them (30 percent) had below-average knowledge, and one-third (13 percent) had above-average knowledge on Nursing Excellence Certification. The mean knowledge score was 8.98 ± 3.912. The knowledge levels were largely correlated with educational qualification, area of working and previous knowledge (p < 0.05) and not correlated with age, gender, experience and working hours. Conclusion: The research arrived at the conclusion that the percentage of knowledge about Nursing Excellence Certification among the majority of the staff nurses was moderate. Continuing nursing education and orientation programs as well as regular training programs should be encouraged to enhance awareness and quality nursing practices.