Background: Intravenous therapy is an integral part of professional nursing practice. Nurses have a responsibility to recognise risk factors for phlebitis.
Aims: To investigate nurses' perceptions of risk factors for phlebitis in a tertiary teaching hospital in north-east Peninsular Malaysia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of 199 randomly selected nurses were surveyed for their perceptions of risk factors for phlebitis using a self-administered questionnaire.
Findings: More than half of the nurses (56.8%) had a good perception levels of risk factors for phlebitis. There was a significant association between the clinical area and nurses' perceptions of risk factors for phlebitis (p=0.04). Nurses working in medical, orthopaedic, and surgical areas had slightly better perceptions than nurses working in multidisciplinary and oncology areas.
Conclusion: These findings suggest that nurses need to continually improve their knowledge about risk factors for phlebitis to ensure safer nursing practice.
Keywords: Intravenous therapy; Malaysia; Nurses' knowledge; Phlebitis; Risk factors.