Using the Theory of Planned Behaviour to assess nursing and allied health students' knowledge and intention to care for patients with COVID‐19

Abstract

Aims and Objectives: To assess nursing and allied health students' demographics, knowledge and intentions to care for patients with an infectious disease, COVID-19.Background: COVID-19 has caused a public health crisis and worldwide panic. Little is known about students' knowledge levels and intentions to care for infected patients during pandemics.Design: A quantitative, cross-sectional study. Method:A cross-sectional study with a convenience sample (N = 480) of nursing and allied health students was analysed using the Mann-Whitney and Spearman's correlation tests.Results: At least 60% of the participants attained high scores for 16 of the 22 items on the knowledge scale. Knowledge was positively associated with attitude (r s = .19, p < .01) and perceived behavioural control (r s = .38, p < .01) and negatively associated with subjective norms (r s = −.11, p < .05). Senior students had higher scores (p = .024) in knowledge. Intention was negatively correlated with knowledge (r s = −.24, p < .01) and perceived behavioural control (r s = −.16, p < .01). Male students (p = .031) and younger students had higher scores in intention (p = .040). Males had higher scores in subjective norms (p < .001), and older and senior students had higher scores in perceived behavioural control (p < .001).Conclusions: Despite the current knowledge on COVID-19 available through multimedia-communication channels, students had negative perceived behavioural controls and intentions to care for COVID-19 patients. Formal education and training are required to enhance students' intentions to care for patients with infectious diseases. Additionally, demographics and belief variables influence students' intentions to care, and further in-depth analysis is required. Relevance to Clinical PracticeThis study suggests the importance of updating and contextualizing nursing and allied health curricula to meet global infectious disease guidelines and, ultimately, to support the healthcare system with efficient practitioners in future pandemics.

Strategies to improve healthcare students’ intention to care for COVID‐19 patients: A medical student perspective

“…We concur with the authors' suggestion that there is a need for formal training programmes on managing communicable diseases (Al Maskari et al, 2021). It is well established that few universities have devoted space in the curriculum for pandemic preparedness and disaster medicine training (O'Byrne et al, 2020).…”

“…The authors also propose that students who join the frontline response should receive support in the form of supervision and mentorship (Al Maskari et al, 2021). Given the unfamiliar nature of the role, formal supervision may help students respond to unforeseen challenges and also offer reassurance to those who doubt their ability to care for patients.…”

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We read with great interest the article by Al Maskari et al, (2021) which explored the different belief variables influencing nursing and allied health students' intention to care for COVID-19 patients. We note that the authors propose recommendations predicated on their findings to promote the inclusion of nursing and allied health students as auxiliary members of the healthcare workforce in the event of future pandemics.

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Factors influencing intention to plagiarize among nursing students in the Philippines

“…The inclusion of other factors such as internet literacy, moral obligation, and past behavior were also found to predict the plagiarism intention of nursing students in this study. Studies conducted locally and abroad (Al Maskari et al, 2022 ; Ditching et al, 2020 ; Oducado et al, 2022 ; Secginli et al, 2021 ; Zhong et al, 2022 ) have similarly found the TPB a helpful framework in successfully explaining the behavioral intention of nursing students.…”

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

“…Numerous studies have explored the applicability of the planned behavior theory in elucidating nurses' intentions to care for Covid-19 patients [ 6 , 14 ]. These investigations employed a questionnaire based on the theory of planned behavior, developed by Lee et al (2020) [ 5 ] and adapted it for caring for Covid-19 patients.…”