Osteoporosis guideline awareness among Iranian nurses: results of a knowledge and attitudes surveyIntroduction: Osteoporosis is a chronic and progressive disease associated with gradual bone loss and elevated risk of fracture. Role of health care profess

Introduction: Osteoporosis is a chronic and progressive disease associated with gradual bone loss and elevated risk of fracture. Role of health care professional especially nurses in lowering burden of osteoporosis via patients and public education is critical. Current study conducted to evaluate knowledge and belief regarding osteoporosis among the nurses in orthopedic wards and their experience with national clinical osteoporosis guideline. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from August to December 2016 among all nurses in orthopedic ward of hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The 23- item self-administered scale consisted of knowledge and belief questions was used. Moreover, data regarding participation in osteoporosis training courses and awareness of the national osteoporosis clinical guideline were collected. The gathered data were analyzed using SPSS (V. 16), p-value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.  Results: From total of 160 nurses, 143 of them completed the questionnaire (response rate: 89.3%). Six nurses (4.2%) had participated in osteoporosis training courses after graduation, and 39 (27.3%) had been aware of the national osteoporosis clinical guideline. The median total knowledge score was 11 out of the maximum of 18 points, and 35.0% of the participants scored above this value. In belief, most of nurses had positive attitude about necessity of osteoporosis screening and patient education.  However, only 29 (20.3%) of them confident in giving counselling to public and patients.    Conclusion: Our findings reveal that we need more empowered nurses to lowering burden of osteoporosis and its consequences in the future