Providing care to patients with COVID-19 in a reference hospital: health care staff intentional behavior and factors that affect it

Psychometric validation of the nursing care behavior questionnaire during emerging disease epidemics: A theory of planned behavior approach

Background and objective

The Covid-19 pandemic could compromise the quality of care by impacting nurses' intention to provide care. Hence, investigating nurses' behavioral intentions when caring for patients during epidemics is essential. This research aims to assess the psychometrics of the "Nursing Care Behavior in Epidemics of Emerging Diseases" questionnaire, based on the constructs of the Theory of Planned Behavior.

Methods

This cross-sectional study involved 311 nurses working in Covid-19 wards of selected hospitals in Ilam City, all of whom were enrolled through a census in 2021. The questionnaire underwent initial translation from English to Persian, followed by evaluations of its face, content, and construct validities. The nursing caring behavior questionnaire, comprising 46 items, was designed to assess behavioral beliefs, normative beliefs, control beliefs, behavioral attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and nurses' intentions to care for Covid-19 patients. Data were analyzed for face, content, and construct validity using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Pearson correlation. Reliability was determined by calculating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

Results

The intention to care dimension demonstrated an inverse correlation with the behavioral attitude dimension (p < 0.001). The most robust correlations were observed between the following paired dimensions: behavioral attitude and perceived power (p < 0.001), subjective norms and intention to care (p < 0.001), perceived behavioral control and subjective norms (p < 0.001), care intention and behavioral beliefs (p < 0.001), behavioral beliefs and behavioral outcome evaluation (p < 0.001), and normative beliefs with motivation to comply (p = 0.001). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the instrument exceeded 0.75.

Conclusion

According to the Theory of Planned Behavior, the nursing care behavior questionnaire proved to be a valid and reliable tool for evaluating nurses' care behaviors amidst emerging disease epidemics.

Factors influencing nurses' behavioral intention toward caring for COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation: A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVES

To investigate nurses' behavioral intention toward caring for COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation, as well as the factors affecting their intention.

BACKGROUND

COVID-19 patients undergoing mechanical ventilation have many care needs and pose more challenges for nurses, which might adversely affect nurses' intention toward caring behavior.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted by using simple random sampling to recruit 598 nurses from five tertiary hospitals in Sichuan Province, China. The participants responded to an online questionnaire that included questions on demographic characteristics; the Attitude, Subjective Norms, and Behavioral Intention of Nurses toward Mechanically Ventilated Patients (ASIMP) questionnaire; the Nursing Professional Identity Scale (NPIS); and the Compassion Fatigue-Short Scale (CF-Short Scale). ANOVA, Spearman correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression were performed to analyze the data.

RESULTS

The mean total behavioral intention score was 179.46 (± 14.83) out of a total score of 189.00, which represented a high level of intention toward caring for patients on mechanical ventilation. Multiple linear regression revealed that subjective norms (β = 0.390, P<0.001), perceived behavioral control (β = 0.149, P<0.001), professional identity (β = 0.101, P = 0.009), and compassion fatigue (β = 0.088 P = 0.024) were significant predictors of nurses' behavioral intention.

CONCLUSIONS

Most nurses have a positive behavioral intention to care for COVID-19 patients undergoing mechanical ventilation. The findings in this study provide some insight for developing effective and tailored strategies to promote nurses' behavioral intention toward caring for ventilated patients under the pandemic situation.