Attitude of nurses caring critically ill patients admitted in the ICUs of AIIMS Hospital, Jodhpur

BACKGROUND: Nurses are internationally recognized to be largest group of registered and regulated practitioner in the health workforce of any country. There is an increase in number of critically ill patients seeking optimal care, and this rapidly increases the demand for the critical care nurses at the end of life. Caring for a critically ill patient creates anxiety and emotional exhaustion and may sometimes lead to burnout. So, it is imperative for the nurses to have an optimistic approach while caring patients in the ICU. The aim of the study was to assess the attitude of the nurses caring critically ill patients and to determine the association of the level of attitude with the selected personal variable. The study was conducted at ICUs of tertiary care hospital by using descriptive research design. METHODS AND MATERIAL: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in ICUs of tertiary care hospital from October to December 2018. The sample was selected by total enumeration technique. Data was collected from 60 critical care nurses with the help of self-structured five-point Likert scale to assess the attitude of nurses. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used for data analysis such as mean, frequency, percentage, standard deviation, and Chi-square test. RESULTS: Majority (81.7%) of the nurses were having favorable attitude toward caring the critically ill patients, and there was no significant association of the attitude score with the selected personal variable at P < 0.05. CONCLUSIONS: Majority of critical care nurses have favorable attitude. If they have supportive environment at workplace, their willingness to work toward quality care will improve further.