**6. Limitations**

This study focussed on nursing sta ff working in emergency departments only and did not consider other nurses' roles and responses. The sample consisted overwhelmingly of women. The small number of male nurses was not a representative sample of the male population of nurses in the region. The non-parametric correlations provided some useful data possible to generalise to a broader population. However, when comparing means, the results were mainly non-significant. Repeated non-parametric tests on the data (Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis Test) indicated the need for an extended study. Data for this study were collected in the Najran region only, which is one of 13 regions in Saudi Arabia, so there was a limitation to the ability to generalise the results to all parts of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, this study focussed on nurses working in MOH hospitals, while nurses working in other agencies, such as Saudi Arabian Oil Company (ARAMCO) Medical Services, Security Forces hospitals, National Guard hospitals, and the Armed Forces Hospitals of Saudi Arabia were not included. Finally, self-reported surveys by nature have bias: response recall, the possibility that questions will be misinterpreted, and the possibility that respondents' perceived knowledge may not be what they actually know.
