Nurses attitudes towards the importance of families in psychiatric care following an educational and training intervention program

Abstract

This study measures the attitudes of the psychiatric nurses, after having received an education and training intervention program (ETI-PROGRAM) in family systems nursing, towards the importance of the families in their care. Nurses' knowledge of the impact that family nursing intervention can have on family members may increase positive attitudes towards families. However, little is known about the impact that education and training intervention can have on nurses' attitudes, towards families in clinical practice. Quasi-experimental design was used to assess the change in nurses' attitudes towards families in psychiatric care after the intervention, which included a one-day seminar on the Calgary family nursing conceptual frameworks and skills training with clinical vignettes of families from psychiatry. The Families Importance in Nursing Care - Nurses' Attitude questionnaire was used to evaluate nurses' attitudes. A total of 81 nurses (65%) working in psychiatric care responded to the questionnaire. Nurses with more than 15 years of work experience were significantly more supportive of families in their care compared with less experienced nurses. Out of the 81 nurses, 52 (64%) answered the questionnaire again 14 months later. Furthermore, psychiatric nurses saw families significantly less burdensome after having participated in the ETI-PROGRAM.

Nurses’ attitudes regarding the importance of families in pediatric nursing care

“…Among different variables related to scores, in the subscale Family: resources in nursing care, the lowest scores presented in this study were found among nurses who did not have any type of training or contact with contents related to Family Nursing. Similar results were found in studies carried out in contexts of primary health care (16) and psychiatric care (17) , which also included lower academic degrees, that is, undergraduate. Higher scores were also found after online training in interacting with families.…”

“…(12)(13) Most participating nurses showed a supportive attitude regarding the importance of involving families in nursing care. The same results were found in studies that used the same scale, carried out in different contexts and realities, such as Sweden (14)(15)(16) , Portugal (2,16) and Iceland (17) .…”

“…This result is very different from other studies, which revealed that more experienced nurses valued family care more highly than younger and less experienced nurses. (14,(16)(17) As for our study, this result can be an indicator of the impact of training on family nursing, which has been gaining force recently in undergraduate courses in Brazil. This did not happen in the past, when nurses participating in this study got their degrees.…”

“…A study on the importance of families in psychiatric care also found predominant differences among nurses from different units. Nurses who worked in child and adolescent psychiatric units had higher scores, whereas nurses from severe psychiatric disorder units had lower scores (17) . The permanent presence of families in pediatrics is a facilitating factor for a more favorable attitude toward the involvement of families in care.…”

The Views of Family Members about Nursing Care of Psychiatric Patients Admitted at a Mental Hospital in Malawi

“…This may be true for some family members in this study who felt that there is little or no engagement with the nurses when caring for psychiatric patients. Nurses may not collaborate with families when they have inadequate knowledge about family involvement in psychiatric nursing [24]. As such, family members and the nurse may not effectively contribute towards the patients' recovery if they do not collaborate when planning nursing care.…”