Factors Influencing General Hospital Nurses’ Confidence about Advance Directives

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing the general hospital nurses' confidence about the advance directives (ADs). Methods : This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. A total of 105 nurses were asked questions about characteristics, knowledge, attitude, learning needs, and confidence the about ADs, using structured questionnaires. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and multiple regression. Results : The mean scores of knowledge were 7.26±1.47; attitude, 2.80±0.31; learning needs, 4.22±0.62; and confidence, 2.57±0.74. It was observed that knowledge had significant correlations with attitude (r=.43, p<.001), learning needs (r=.29, p=.003), and confidence (r=.40, p<.001), and attitude had significant correlations with learning needs (r=.31, p=.001) and confidence (r=.45, p<.001). Using multiple regression analysis, it was found that confidence was significantly influenced by knowledge (β=.27, p=.007), attitude (β=.21, p=.043), and experience of nursing or counseling a patient who wrote ADs (β=-.19, p=.046). The explanatory power of this model was 37.9% (F=5.16, p<.001, R 2 =.379). Conclusions : These findings suggest the need to develop a program to enhance nurses' knowledge, positive attitude, and experience of nursing or counseling a patient who wrote ADs.