Introduction: Nursing has evolved from being subservient to Physicians into an independent profession with scientific knowledge, skill and Evidence Based Nursing Practice. Nurses with their astute observation and clinical acumen can positively influence the course of treatment and patient outcome. Performing a physical assessment is one of the basic skills a nurse must possess and with more number of patients being admitted in hospitals for respiratory diseases the need for skill in respiratory assessment further increases. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a structured teaching programme on competency in respiratory assessment among nurses in a selected tertiary care center.

Material & Method:The study was carried out among 60 nurses of a tertiary care center selected by simple random sampling. The competency of nurses was assessed using structured questionnaire with 20 items and an observation checklist.

Results:The mean pre test knowledge score was 8.77 whereas the post test mean knowledge score was 16.38. Comparison of the mean scores by Wilcoxon’s signed rank test yielded a ‘Z’ value of 6.64 which was highly significant at a p value <0.0001. The mean pre test skill score was 7.57 whereas the post test mean skill score was 21.07. On comparing the calculated value by Wilcoxon’s signed rank test, ‘Z’ value obtained was 6.75 which was highly significant at a p value of <0.0001.

Conclusion:The structured teaching programme was found to be effective in increasing the knowledge and skill of nurses in respiratory assessment. Though the correlation coefficient ‘r’ revealed that there was no statistically significant correlation between knowledge and skill, the nurses had a significant improvement in the knowledge and skill after the structured teaching programme. Therefore, structured teaching programme can be used effectively in updating the knowledge and skill of nurses regarding the latest trends in nursing practice.