Medicine and Medical Sciences

Hypertension has been among the most studied topics of the previous century and has been one of the most significant comorbidities contributing to the development of stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and renal failure. In the mist of that, there is limited data on nurses’ knowledge regarding prescription of antihypertensive drugs in Lesotho. The aim of this study was to assess primary health care nurses’ knowledge regarding prescription of antihypertensive drugs. Quantitative descriptive cross-sectional study of primary health care nurses recruited by purposive sampling was conducted. An electronic questionnaire was used to collect data and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Most participants were females and had attained diploma in general nursing and midwifery. A proportion of 26% fully knew the steps to be followed for diagnosing hypertension and only 23% felt highly confident to initiate patients on antihypertensive drugs. Moreover, knowledge on mechanism of action of antihypertensive drugs was poor and less than half only knew antihypertensive drug of choice when there is comorbidity. The study identified that nurses have knowledge deficit regarding prescription of antihypertensive drugs. There is a need for interventions to improve nurses’ knowledge so as to curb hypertension burden. 

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