RELATIONSHIP OF NURSES' PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CHARACTERISTICS TO NURSES' ATTITUDES TOWARD PARENT PARTICIPATION (CHILD-HOSPITALIZED, FAMILY).
Contributors: University of Akron.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 243
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: This study explored the relationship of nurses' personal and professional characteristics to nurses' attitudes toward parent participation. The literature review had indicated that parent participation in a hospitalized child's care provides a sense of security and emotional support for both parent and child. Nurses' attitudes toward parent participation were described as being influenced by some personal and professional characteristics. This study was designed to analyze the relationship of age, sex, marital status, parental status, administrative/clinical position, number of years in the nursing of children, nursing education, and institution of employment to nurses' attitudes toward parent participation.

A nonrandom sample of 498 registered nurses from children's and general hospitals in Northeast Ohio completed a questionnaire which included a Parent Participation Attitude Scale (P.P.A.S.) and a Personal and Professional Data section. Scores on the P.P.A.S. categorized the nurses' attitude as most rejecting, rejecting, neutral, accepting or most accepting.

Analysis of variance was used to test nondirectionally stated hypotheses and the 't' test was used to test directionally stated ones about single characteristics of nurses. Two-way analysis of variance was used to explore interactions between characteristics. Chi-square-goodness-of-fit tests were conducted when comparing characteristics of subjects in the neutral and most accepting attitude categories.

Results indicated that head nurses, nursing supervisors, nurses with a professional nursing education and nurses with a master degree in nursing had more accepting attitudes than nurses without these characteristics. Thirty-six of the differences in mean attitude scores of hospitals were of 10 points or more; 12 of these were significant. No interactions between characteristics nor differences in the characteristics of nurses with neutral and most accepting attitudes were found.

Item response curve analysis of the P.P.A.S. revealed five items with unexpected responses. Factor analysis confirmed construct validity and identified eight factors. Reliability, as measured by Cronbach's alpha, was .7464.

Implications were discussed for nurses in administration, education, practice, and research.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: B, page: 4183.

Thesis (PH.D.)--THE UNIVERSITY OF AKRON, 1985.

School code: 0003.