Behavioral Intentions and Factors Influencing Nurses' Care of COVID-19 Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study

OBJECTIVE: Behavioral intentions to care for patients with infectious diseases are crucial for improving quality of care. However, there have been few studies of the behavioral intentions and factors influencing patient care by clinical nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to explore cognition, attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and behavioral intentions of clinical nurses while caring for COVID-19 patients and to explore any influencing factors. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of nurses through convenience sampling in southeast China from February 2020 to March 2020. The questionnaire was developed based on the theory of planned behavior and self-efficacy. RESULTS: A total of 774 nurses completed the survey. Of these, 69.12% (535/774) reported positive behavioral intentions, 75.58% (585/774) reported a positive attitude, and 63.82% (494/774) reported having the confidence to care for patients. However, the lack of support from family and friends and special allowance affected their self-confidence. Attitude, self-efficacy, subjective norms, and ethical cognition were significantly positively correlated with behavioral intentions (r = 0.719, 0.690, 0.603, and 0.546, respectively, all P < 0.001). Structural equation model showed that self-efficacy, attitude, ethical cognition, and subjective norms had positive effects on behavioral intentions (β = 0.402, 0.382, 0.091, and 0.066, respectively, P < 0.01). The total effect of behavioral intentions was influenced by attitude, ethical cognition, self-efficacy, and subjective norms (β = 0.656, 0.630, 0.402, and 0.157, respectively, P < 0.01). In addition, ethical cognition had a positive mediating effect on behavioral intentions (β = 0.539, P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The study results indicated that attitude, ethical cognition, and self-efficacy were the main factors influencing nurses' behavioral intention. Efforts should be made to improve nurses' attitude and self-efficacy through ethical education and training to increase behavioral intentions to care for patients with infectious diseases, which will improve the quality of nursing care.