Abstract
Stroke is a severe health condition that causes morbidity and death all over the world, and nurses have a significant role in the care of patients admitted with stroke. The study aimed to explore knowledge and perception of stroke among nursing students to provide high quality of care. A descriptive, quantitative study was conducted among 192 participants between May 2018 and January 2019. The study included female students, aged 18 and older. The Self- structured questionnaire was used for data collection, composed of socio-demographic and stroke related-knowledge.. The Pilot study was carried out among 10% of volunteers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were conducted using a computer software program (SPSS) version 20. The T-test and chi-squared tests were used with a P-value of 0.05 to ensure the significances of the results. The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the college of nursing, and written consent was taken from all participants. More than 90% of participants were single and knew what a stroke was, and more than 50% knew the different types of stroke. Also, participants had moderate knowledge about risk factors, signs, symptoms, and stroke prevention with 45.3%, 47.4%, and 38.0% respectively, and (50.0%) had poor knowledge of post-stroke complications and medications for treatment. Education level had a positive effect on participants' knowledge, most of the participants in at the fourth class had a moderate level of knowledge about risk factors for stroke, which was statistically significant (p-value was is 0.037), while third and fourth class students had a moderate level of knowledge about' signs and symptoms of stroke, which was statistically not significant (p-value > 0.005). Overall, students had a moderate knowledge score of stroke perception. Education level has a positive effect on fourth-year students' knowledge compared with students from third and second year classes.