The intentions of nurses to take care of HIV-infected patients in Songklanagarind Hospital

Abstract

To examine thecharacteristics of the intentions to take care of HIV-infectedpatients and any interactions which has had an impact on theintentions among nurses, as well as to classify predictingability. The variables in the study were comprised the intentionsto take care, job satisfaction, fear of AIDS, personal ability,policy of prevention, and demographic characteristics. The eligible population included 360 registered nurses whoworking in this profession continuously longer than 6 months,from Nursing Division, Songklanagarind Hospital. The instrumentused in this study was a self-administered questionnaireconstructed by the researcher from extensive analysis of relatedliterature prior to the pretest. The questionnaire inventory,which was used to measure the intention to take care was builtbased on the Ajzen and Fishbein Theory of Reasoned Action.Content validity was assessed by experts, and reliability wasassessed through Cronbach's alpha. The internal consistency was0.79. The data obtained from 343 respondents (a response rate of95.27 %) were analyzed. The following conclusions were based onthe findings of this investigation: 1. Most of registered nurses (67.06 %) in SongklanagarindHospital have moderate level of intention to take care ofHIV-infected patients. 2. The significant factors corelated with the intentions totake care of HIV-infected patients include job satisfaction, fearof AIDS, difficulty of adhering Universal Precaution procedures. 3. Two variables, i.e. job satisfaction and fear of AIDSare found to be able to significantly explain the variation ofnurses' intentions to take care of HIV-infected patients. Bothvariables account for 20 % (R('2) = 0.195). In addition, nurses also reveal their needs in caseswhenever taking care for HIV-infected patients, such as adequatemedical instruments and supplies, updating knowledge, and salarysupplementation as a fringe benefit.