Understanding ambivalence toward organ donation and transplantation: An exploratory study of nursing students

Introducing the trier univalence neutrality ambivalence (TUNA) database: A picture database differentiating complex attitudes

Using validated stimulus material is crucial for ensuring research comparability and replicability. However, many databases rely solely on bidimensional valence ratings, ranging from negative to positive. While this material might be appropriate for certain studies, it does not reflect the complexity of attitudes and therefore might hamper the unambiguous interpretation of some study results. In fact, most databases cannot differentiate between neutral (i.e., neither positive nor negative) and ambivalent (i.e., simultaneously positive and negative) attitudes. Consequently, even presumably univalent (only positive or negative) stimuli cannot be clearly distinguished from ambivalent ones when selected via bipolar rating scales. In the present research, we introduce the Trier Univalence Neutrality Ambivalence (TUNA) database, a database containing 304,262 validation ratings from heterogeneous samples of 3,232 participants and at least 20 (M = 27.3, SD = 4.84) ratings per self-report scale per picture for a variety of attitude objects on split semantic differential scales. As these scales measure positive and negative evaluations independently, the TUNA database allows to distinguish univalence, neutrality, and ambivalence (i.e., potential ambivalence). TUNA also goes beyond previous databases by validating the stimulus materials on affective outcomes such as experiences of conflict (i.e., felt ambivalence), arousal, anger, disgust, and empathy. The TUNA database consists of 796 pictures and is compatible with other popular databases. It sets a focus on food pictures in various forms (e.g., raw vs. cooked, non-processed vs. highly processed), but includes pictures of other objects that are typically used in research to study univalent (e.g., flowers) and ambivalent (e.g., money, cars) attitudes for comparison. Furthermore, to facilitate the stimulus selection the TUNA database has an accompanying desktop app that allows easy stimulus selection via a multitude of filter options.

Religious attitude and sense of citizenship effect on organ donation in nursing students: A cross-sectional study

AIM

This study examined the effect of religious attitude and sense of citizenship to organ donation attitudes and organ donation willingness among nursing students.

BACKGROUND

Organ donation is an issue that should be evaluated together with medical, religious, social, economic, cultural, legal and ethical variables. However, there is no research examining the effect of religious attitudes or sense of citizenship on organ donation attitudes and willingness.

DESIGN

A descriptive, correlational study.

METHODS

A total of 225 nursing students participated in the study between February and April 2020. The data were collected with the Ok-Religious Attitude Scale, the Sense of Citizenship Scale, an Organ Donation Questionnaire and the Organ Donation Attitude Scale.

RESULTS

A sample of 187 nursing students participated; 50.8% of them were in the stage of thinking about organ donation willingness. Older nursing students (β =.231, p<.001) was positively affected to the positive organ donation attitude, while being male (β = -.151, p=.035) was negatively affected. Male gender (β=0.201, p=.004) was positively affected to the negative organ donation attitude. Acceptance of differences (β=-0.262, p<.001) and relationship with God score (β=-0.189, p=.006) were negatively affected to the negative organ donation attitude. Regarding the participants' willingness to donate, acceptance of differences (β=.213, p=.004) was found to be a significant predictor.

CONCLUSIONS

In this study, it was found that being female, relationship with God and acceptance of differences had a positive effect on organ donation attitude. Acceptance of differences was found as important factor in organ donation willingness.

Clinical Competence of Nurses and the Associated Factors in Public Hospitals of Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Introduction

Nursing competency is an essential component for improving the quality of care in the healthcare system. However, assessing competency solely on the dimensions of skills and knowledge does not provide complete picture of a nurse ability to provide quality patient care. This is because it lacks focus on the nurse's attitudes and values, which are also important determinants of clinical competence. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the comprehensive clinical competence of nurses and its associated factors in public hospitals of Gamo Zone, Southern Ethiopia.

Materials and Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted using a census method to collect information from nurses through self-administered questionnaires. The data were entered into EpiData version 3.1 and exported to Stata version 15 for analysis. A linear regression model was used to identify factors associated with clinical competence.

Results

In this study, the average clinical competence of nurses was 177.32, with a standard deviation of 19.19, and 31.2% of the respondents had a high level of clinical competence. Associated factors identified with clinical competence include gender, age, marital status, qualification, position, work experience, unit, interest in their profession, critical thinking disposition, clinical self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence.

Conclusions

The overall level of clinical competence among nurses in this study was moderate. As such, nurses improve their clinical competence by receiving training and development opportunities that focus on critical thinking, clinical self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence; working in a supportive work environment that encourages them to take risks and learn from their mistakes; and being monitored and coached on a regular basis.