Nurses’ attitudes towards the nursing profession and associated factors in selected public hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Unfavorable attitude toward nursing profession remaining the global issue across in the various level of health institutions attitude is the most important concept in nursing. Because of high ambiguity and role conflict in the profession. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore nurses’ attitudes toward their profession and associated factors in selected public hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2021. METHODOLOGY: Institutional based quantitative cross- sectional study design was conducted in five randomly selected public hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from May to April 2021. Systematic random sampling method was used to select sample of 357 nurses working in selected hospitals. Data were collected using standard self-administer questionnaire and the collected data were entered and analyzed by using SPSS 25version. Descriptive, Bi-variate and multiple logistic regression analysis were computed to describe the association between attitude of nurses and independent variables that show P-values ≤0.05 with 95% Confidence Interval consider statistically significant factors for attitude toward professionalism. RESULTS: A total of 348 nurses were participated in the study, with 97.5% response rate. From this 60.6% (n = 211) of study participants were female nurses. Only 46% of nurses in Addis Ababa city public hospitals had favorable attitude towards their profession. Experienced nurses [(AOR: 1.19; 95% CI: 0.625, 13.37)], had good managerial support [(AOR: 2.40; 95% CI: 0.197, 26.702)], had ethical related training [(AOR: 1.50; 95% CI: 0.35, 6.407)], had positive image toward nursing profession [(AOR: 2.32; 95% CI: 0.166, 34.950)], who believe in our community had positive image toward nursing profession [(AOR: 4.73; 95% CI: 2.136, 88.109)] were positively associated with the overall nurses’ attitude toward their profession. CONCLUSION: This study offers an interesting insight about nurses’ image toward their profession and associated factors in Addis Ababa city. The overall attitude of nurses in Addis Ababa city public hospitals toward their profession was falls below the average level. Given the importance of the attitude in nursing and various factors, efforts are directed to achieve the desired level and reducing the barriers.