A descriptive survey of nurses` attitudes regarding family importance in nursing care in four selected emergency departments in eThekwini district.

Abstract

Introduction: Family members have been found to provide valuable support in the emergency department where patients are critically ill and dependent on their loved ones (family) for decision-making and to communicate their wishes to healthcare workers. Literature documents reactions and responses of nurses to the presence of families, which appears to question their relevance in the emergency department. Purpose: This study described the attitude of nurses regarding family importance in nursing care in the emergency departments at four hospitals, in eThekwini district, KwaZulu-Natal. Methodology: This study adopts a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive design and utilised the Families Importance in Nursing Care Nurses` Attitude (FINC-NA) questionnaire to obtain responses. The FINC-NA consists of 26 question items, and four subscales measured on a five-point Likert scale. Purposive sampling was used to collect data from 137 enrolled nurses and professional nurses working at the emergency department in one tertiary and three regional hospitals. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results: These revealed that enrolled nurses and professional nurses demonstrated supportive attitude towards families and recognised their importance in providing nursing care. The results shows that there are significant associations between the three sub-scales measured in the study. Although the family as a resource in nursing care (Fam-RNC) score was lower for nurses less than 40 years of age, p= 0.038; family as a burden (Fam-B) score was high for nurse managers and this corresponds with supportive attitude, p= 0.029; family as own resource (Fam-OR) scores were low for nurses with less than five years of working experience in the emergency department, p=0.03. Conclusion: The study revealed that nurses generally have positive attitude towards family importance in the emergency department. However, elderly nurses and nurse managers appear to demonstrate supportive attitude to family members. These findings have significant implications for nurses to see family members as resources rather than perceived as burdens. Nurse managers should train and support nurses to demonstrate positive attitude towards family members in the emergency department.