A pre-experimental study was conducted on 55 nurses working in Intensive Thoracic Unit, Medical Intensive Care Unit & Surgical Intensive Care Unit, to assess the knowledge of nurses on nursing management of the patients with chest tube drainage & the outcome of Self Instructional Module (SIM) for nurses on nursing management of patients with chest tube drainage through knowledge scores at a tertiary care hospital & Medical Research Centre, Belgaum, Karnataka. The conceptual framework used for the study was based on Ludwig Von Bertalanffy’s (1980) General System Theory. One group pretest–posttest design, with an evaluative approach was used for the study. The structured knowledge statements consisting of 65 items with ‘true’ or ‘false’ answers were used as an instrument with non–probability, purposive sampling technique for the data collection. The data were collected through structured interview schedule. The Study findings revealed that, out of 55 nurses majority 39 (71%) scored ‘Good’, minimum 7 (13%) scored ‘Average’ and remaining 9 (16%) scored ‘Poor’ in the pre test. Whereas in the post test majority 43 (78%) scored ‘Good’ and remaining 12 (22%) scored ‘Average’ and none 0 (0%) were under the ‘poor’ category. Paired ‘t’ test results showed statistically significant gain in knowledge with the tcalculated (24.85*) at (p<0.001) after the administration of the SIM. The study concluded that, overall the pre test knowledge score about the chest tube drainage was poor among the nurses. There was a need for them the SIM on nursing management of the patients with chest tube drainage. The post test results showed the improvement in the level of knowledge concluding that the SIM is an effective method for nurses to increase their level of knowledge about the chest tube drainage. 

Keywords: Chest tube drainage; Critical care unit (CCU); Nurses; Nursing management; Knowledge; Self instructional module (SIM).