OBJECTIVES: To identify the learning needs of professional nurses to provide quality care for patients with arteriovenous fistula (AV Fistula) for hemodialysis. METHODS: This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 36 professional nurses from the hemodialysis unit of a hospital in the State of São Paulo. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Initially, questionnaires were distributed to 43 nurses, but only 36 (83.7%) responded and returned the questionnaires. RESULTS: A great number of nurses (44.9 %) reported to have difficulties in providing quality care for patients with AV Fistula. Difficulties were related to the access of AV Fistula for hemodialysis (47.2%), hemostasis of the site when withdrawing the needle after hemodialysis (19.4%) and lack of competency for the management of hematoma (13.9%), and patient's instructions and education (19.4%). CONCLUSIONS: Nurses had many learning needs to prepare them to care for patients with arteriovenous AV Fistula. This finding led to the development of a protocol to facilitated quality care nursing care.
Nursing care; Arteriovenous fistula; Hemodialysis