A quasi-experimental study design two-study group (pre-test, post-test I and post-test II).

The study was carried out in child welfare teaching hospitals and the central teaching hospital for pediatrics. Baghdad City, Iraq.

A non-probability (convenience) sample of the study participants consisted of fifty nurses, divided into two groups: 25 nurses in the research group and 25 nurses in the control group. The study groups received an educational program, whereas the control group did not. Both groups completed the pre-test, post-test I, and post-test II.

1. Ethical Considerations

The College of Nursing Scientific Research Ethics Committee (third session, November 22, 2023) must grant ethical approval for the project before it may begin. After giving the nurses an in-depth description of the study that would be conducted, they gave their oral consent. In addition to promising to uphold the strict confidentiality of the data extracted from the study sample and use it only for related scientific goals, they also have the right to cancel from the study whenever they become uncomfortable or frustrated with any of the questions on the questionnaire that was created as an instrument for research or the way the researcher is gathering data.

2. The Construction of the Tools and Program

Based on the results of the preliminary assessment of nurses' needs, that showed poor nurses' knowledge about SIDS prevention and after reviewing literature, these intended guidelines were designed based on updated recommendations for a safe infant sleeping environment[7]. The researcher has constructed the study instruments based on a review of the relevant literature and previous studies. The questionnaire was used as a tool and approach to gather data. It was divided into two sections:

a . Section One

This section has six items relevant to the socio-demographic attributes of the sample, such as the age, gender, education level, marital status, number of years of NICU experience, and number of training sessions of the nurses.

b . Section Two

This section consists of ten questions that assess nurses' knowledge of the risk factors associated with SIDS.

3. The Educational Program Implementation

Nurses were given a chance to participate in an educational program aimed at improving their knowledge of SIDS prevention from September 14, 2023, to February 21, 2024.

The pilot study was carried out on five nurses in the NICU to validate the content of the questionnaire and determine the time needed for data collection.

The program's and study tools' content validity is confirmed by a review by a panel of 13 specialists with more than nine years of expertise in their respective fields. The experts' opinions and suggestions were taken into account, and the final copy of the developed instrument and program is currently appropriate as a tool to carry out the study.

1. Reliability

The questionnaire's reliability was assessed using a test-retest approach, with five nurses from the NICU evaluated at two-week intervals. The alpha correlation coefficient (r =0.740) demonstrates that the questionnaire format is sufficiently dependable.

2 . Rating and Scoring of the Study Instrument

For the purpose of scoring instrument’s items, athree Likert scale was used for knowledge scale and scored as follows: I know (1), Uncertain (0), and I don’t know (0). Following the calculation of the range from minimum score and maximum score, the range score was divided into three levels and scored as follows in order to estimate the knowledge score: 0–0.33, Fair–0.34–0.66, Good–0.67–1 are the values for the poor.

Constructive knowledge questionnaires were used by the researcher to gather data, which was then addressed in interviews using structured, closed-ended questions. About 15 to 20 minutes were provided to each nurse to finish their assessment.

The statistical package for social sciences, version 26.0 (SPSS), was used to analyze the data collected for this research.

Table 1 shows that in both groups, the majority of nurses are female (88%). The age range of 20–<30 comprised the majority of participants. This investigation is similar to Elwasefy and colleagues' who conducted a study regarding nurses' awareness of and behavior related to sudden infant death syndrome in the NICU[12].

The research found that 56% of nurses in both categories were unmarried, which is a larger percentage than the average of participants who were married. This finding conflicts with a Hanan analysis [13].

According to a survey, the majority of nursing graduates held a diploma. This finding contradicts a study conducted by Mahmoud & Shawq in Mosul, which found that most nurses have bachelor degrees[14]. Participants' attendance in the NICU ranged from a maximum of one to five years in all groups. The current findings, supported by [15].

The majority of the attendees in the training session did not have training courses. This outcome is consistent with research [16], [17], [18].

According to the findings of the study group's assessment of nurses' knowledge on "Concepts of risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome," nurses demonstrate a fair degree of knowledge during the pre-test period and a good level of knowledge during post-tests I and II. During the pretest, post-test I, and post-test II, the nurses in the control group demonstrated a fair level of knowledge. This conclusion is corroborated by [19], [20], [21]. Also, this result was confirmed by [12], [22] , who reported a lack of nurses knowledge about sleep environmental factors during the pre-test. Also, another study supported this survey [23], [24], [25], [26], [27]. In contrast to the recent findings by [28], who reported that most nurses were able to recognize risk factors associated with SIDS.

Concerning the efficacy of the training program, the data analysis shows that the research group's nurses' knowledge about the risk factors for sudden infant death syndrome increased significantly as a result of the program. The descriptive data clearly shows that the educational program's efficacy is demonstrated by the appreciable improvement in the mean score on nurses' knowledge during post-tests I and II. The findings show that the eta squared and the "Greenhouse-Geisser" adjustment, which show a small size effect, are not significant. According to Tables (4, 5), the descriptive data indicates that there were no differences in the control group's mean score on the pretest, post-test I, or post-test II for nurses' knowledge.