Abstract: Objective: To investigate the status quo of nurses' knowledge of Skin Tears in tertiary grade A hospitals and analyze the influencing factors. Methods: Totally 4274 nurses from 133 tertiary grade A hospitals in 22 provinces were recruited using convenient sampling, using general data questionnaire and the Chinese version of Skin Tear Knowledge Assessment Instrument. Results: The average score of nurses' knowledge of Skin Tears was 10.42±3.21, and the percentage of the correct responses above 60% cut point was 39.8%. The multiple linear regression analysis showed that gender, education background, professional title, department, certified wound, ostomy, and continence nurses, care competence of Skin Tears, wound training experience and the need for a specialized training in Skin Tears were the influencing factors of nurses' knowledge of Skin Tears (P<0.05). Conclusion: The nurses' knowledge of Skin Tears is in the middle and low level. To improve their knowledge and skill of Skin Tears, a professional and multi-dimensional curriculum and the evidence-based nursing procedures should be developed, and the nurses should be standardized trained based on their characteristics and individual learning needs.

Key words: Skin Tears; knowledge; nurse; tertiary hospital; influencing factor