knowledge and attitude towards the care for self-harming adolescents and the related factors in emergency department nurses from northern iran

Introduction: self-harm is a serious health concern, and is relatively common among adolescents. the quality-of-service delivery to self-harming patients is related to the knowledge and attitude of nurses.objective: this study aimed to determine the knowledge and attitude of emergency department (ed) nurses from northern iran regarding the care of self-harming adolescents and find the related factors.materials and methods: this analytical cross-sectional study was conducted on 208 ed nurses with over 6 months of work experience in the ed of hospitals in rasht, iran. they were selected using a census sampling method. the data collection tool was a three-part questionnaire including a sociodemographic form, the attitudes towards deliberate self-harm questionnaire (adshq), and letho et al.’s knowledge scale. the collected data were analyzed using the kolmogorov-smirnov test, shapiro-wilks test, mann-whitney u test, multiple linear regression analysis, and the spearman correlation test.results: the mean age of the nurses was 34.8±7.8 years, and the majority of them were female (90.9%) with a bachelor’s degree (88.5%). the mean total score of knowledge was 0.67±0.12. nurses’ attitudes were mostly positive, and the total adshq score was 3.59±0.28. the adshq score was significantly different based on nurses’ age (p=0.03) and experience in caring for self-harming adolescents (p=0.033). the adshq score had a positive correlation with the knowledge score (r=0.252, p=0.001). the knowledge score was significantly different based on marital status (p=0.042) and experience in caring for self-harming adolescents (p=0.016). the significant factors for the adshq score in the multiple regression model were the risk factors domain of the knowledge (β=0.334, 95%ci; 1.527%, 3.367%, p=0.001), age (β=0.184, 95% ci; 0.061%, 0.323%, p=0.004) and experience in caring for self-harming adolescents (β=2.4, 95% ci; 0.340%, 4.595%, p=0.023).conclusion: nurses’ knowledge in caring of the intentional self-harm adolescents was moderate and their attitude towards these adolescents was positive. in the eds, it is recommended that nurses with experience dealing with self-harming adolescents be employed. also, retraining programs should be provided to ed nurses to improve their knowledge and positive attitudes towards caring for self-harming adolescents, focusing on increasing empathy and perceived confidence.