Attitudes of Registered and Licensed Practical Nurses About the Importance of Families in Surgical Hospital Units

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses about the importance of the family in surgical hospital units before (T1) and after (T2) implementation of a Family Systems Nursing educational intervention based on the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models. This study was part of the Landspitali University Hospital Family Nursing Implementation Project and used a nonrandomized, quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent group before and after and without a control group. There were 181 participants at T1 and 130 at T2. No difference was found in nurses' attitudes as measured by the Families Importance in Nursing Care-Nurses' Attitudes (FINC-NA) questionnaire, before and after the educational intervention. Attitudes toward families were favorable at both times. Analysis of demographic variables showed that age, work experience, and workplace (inpatient vs. outpatient units) had an effect on the nurses' attitudes toward families. The influence of work experience on attitudes toward family care warrants further exploration.

Nurses’ attitudes toward family importance in heart failure care

“…Overall, RNs working with patients with HF were supportive of families' involvement, which is consistent with previous research among RNs in other nursing settings [14,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30]. However, significant differences in attitudes were found for age, type and level of education, competence, personal and professional experience, and workplace.…”

“…RNs' attitudes toward the importance of families' involvement have previously been studied in various context-specific settings and populations such as paediatric care in Italy and Canada [21,22], surgical and psychiatric care in Iceland [23,24], critical and emergency care in Scotland, Iceland, Saudi Arabia and Sweden [25,26,27], general nursing care in Sweden and USA [14,28], nursing students in Sweden [29] and lastly cardiovascular care in various Scandinavian countries and Belgium [30]. These studies show overall supportive attitudes toward the importance of families' involvement in nursing care with differences for demographic variables such as age, gender, length of experience and educational level.…”

Psychometric testing of the revised “Families’ Importance in Nursing Care—Nurses’ Attitudes instrument”

“…Nurses are uniquely positioned to promote family involvement in patient care, however, the attitudes and beliefs they hold may help or hinder this practice (Mackie, Mitchell, & Marshall, ). Given the importance of this issue, the attitudes nurse's hold towards family involvement in nursing care has been examined in several European studies using the “Families’ Importance in Nursing Care—Nurses’ Attitudes” (FINC—NA) instrument (Benzein, Johansson, Arestedt, Berg, & Saveman, ; Blondal et al., ; Rahmqvist Linnarsson, Benzein, & Årestedt, ). While self‐report instruments, such as the FINC—NA are useful for observing phenomenon like beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of nurses towards family collaborating and partnering in patient care (Boynton, ), it is imperative that the instruments used are robust, have demonstrated reliability and validity that is able to be replicated and confirmed in independent samples.…”

Family interview guide: strategy to develop skills in novice nurses

“…In agreement with this, the literature shows that the acquisition of skills when working with families is enhanced by a process that requires the association of the theory of family nursing concepts with the clinical practice of nurses, requires the supervision and support of an experienced professional on this theme, and needs feedback about the actions performed, which in turn allows nurses to think about their performance and consolidate the skills acquired (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) . Like this study, other studies show that using different pedagogical strategies during nurse training, such as role play involving situations with families, case studies and discussions, teaching of interview skills, reflective practices and communication training, provides the development of perceptual, conceptual, and executive skills to work with families (9,13,16) .…”