Abstract
Purpose : The purpose of this study was to provide suggestions for nursing-based education related to bed baths. The aim was to extract the minimum requirements considered necessary by expert clinical nurses.
Method : This was a quantitative descriptive study using the Delphi method.
Result : Expert clinical nurses reached agreement on 105 knowledge items. A high agreement rate was reached with “conditions in which bathing is contraindicated” , “points of observation for judging to clean care manner” , “the effects of bath on the circulatory and respiratory systems” , and “attentiveness towards the patient while performing bed bath” . Furthermore, the expert nurses did not agree on 34 knowledge items. These items included “the necessary tools for performing a bed bath” , and “the correct procedure for performing a bed bath” .
Conclusion : Expert nurses felt that the most important considerations for nurses concerned the ability for correct judgment and adequate observation. This is because the number of seriously ill patients is increasing in hospitals. It is therefore necessary to classify the items where agreement was not reached based on the principles.
