NURSES’ CARING BEHAVIORS FOR DYING PATIENTS IN SOUTHERN THAILAND
ABSTRACT: Nowadays, the
end-of-life care becomes an indicator of the quality of care in a hospital.
However, current nursing standards and quality of care related to the end of
life do not meet the desired expectations of both dying patients and their
families. Therefore, caring behaviors of nurses need to be described.
Purpose: The purpose of this descriptive research was to describe the
level of nurses’ caring behaviors for dying patients in southern Thailand.
Method: Proportionate stratified random sampling was used to select 360
registered nurses who had been working in general hospitals and
regional/university hospitals in southern Thailand for at least one year.
Instruments used in the study included the Demographic Data Questionnaire (DDQ)
and the Nurse’s Caring Behavior for Dying Patients Questionnaire (NCBDQ). The
questionnaires were content validated by three experts. The reliability of the
NCBDQ was tested with 30 nurses yielding a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .97.
The data were analyzed by using frequency, percentage, mean and standard
deviation.
Results: The level of nurses’ caring behaviors for dying patients was
high (M = 2.12, SD = .43). The five dimensions of the nurses' caring behaviors
including compassion, confidence, conscience, commitment and comportment were
also at a high level. However, the competence dimension was at a moderate level
(M = 1.82, SD = .51).
Conclusion: The results of this study indicated that nurses perceived
themselves as having a moderate level of competency in taking care of dying
patients. Therefore, educational intervention on enhancing nurses’ competency
for end of life care is recommended. In addition, factors relating to nurses’
caring behavior for dying patients should be further explored.
Author: Chuleeporn
Prompahakul, Kittikorn Nilmanat, Waraporn Kongsuwan
Journal Code: jpkeperawatangg110015