Pediatric Nurses' Knowledge of and Self-Efficacy in Breastfeeding Counseling.

OBJECTIVE: Sound breastfeeding (BF) knowledge among health professionals is vital for proper institutional support of BF mothers. This study aims to measure both BF knowledge and self-efficacy (SE) of pediatric nurses in supporting BF and to determine their associated factors.

STUDY DESIGN: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Mansoura University Children's Hospital and Mansoura New General Hospital during the period from January to March 2017. A total of 186 nurses completed a predesigned self-administered questionnaire developed by the investigators to measure BF knowledge and SE in BF counseling.

RESULTS: The overall total means of BF knowledge and SE scores were 26.8 (6.4) and 3.8 (0.6), respectively. Linear regression showed that having bachelor education, working in neonatal department, having a child (aged 2-5 years) were significant independent predictors of BF knowledge score ( R 2  = 0.448, p  ≤ 0.001), while BF knowledge score is the only significant independent predictor of SE in BF counseling ( R 2 = 0.36, p  ≤ 0.001).

CONCLUSION: Higher pregraduation education, working in neonatal department, having children aged 2 to 5 years are independent predictors of BF knowledge. Improving BF knowledge may improve nurses' SE in supporting BF.