Investigation and influencing factors of the behavioral intention of nurses voluntarily participating in the care of older adults with disabilities

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to analyze nurses’ intention and influencing factors to participate in voluntary care services for older adults with disabilities, and build a structural equation model to clarify the influence of behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on the behavioral intention, to lay the foundation for establishing voluntary care teams for older adults with disabilities. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 hospitals of different levels from August to November 2020. Participants were selected by convenience sampling. A self-designed questionnaire was used to survey nurses to investigate their intention to participate in voluntary care services for older adults with disabilities, including four dimensions: behavioral intention (three items), behavioral attitude (seven items), subjective norms (eight items), and perceived behavioral control (eight items), a total of 26 items. Logistic regression was used to analyze the influence of general information on behavioral intention. Smart PLS 3.0 software was used to build the structural equation model, and the influence of behavioral attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control on behavioral intention was analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 1,998 nurses were enrolled, 1,191 (59.6%) were willing to participate in volunteer care for older adults with disabilities, and the willingness of nurses to participate in volunteer care for older adults with disabilities was above the medium level. The scores of behavioral attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention dimension were 26.31 ± 5.94, 30.93 ± 6.62, 27.58 ± 6.70, and 10.78 ± 2.50, respectively. Logistic regression analysis showed that the nurses who had urban household registration, held a management positions in the department, received free help from other volunteers, and was rewarded by hospitals or organizations for voluntary activities were more willing to participate (P < 0.05). The partial least squares analysis showed that behavioral attitudes (β = 0.456, P < 0.001), subjective norms (β = 0.167, P < 0.01), and perceived behavioral control (β = 0.123, P < 0.01) had a significant positive impact on behavioral intention. The more positive the attitude, the more support, the fewer the obstacles, and the greater the intention of the nurses to participate. CONCLUSION: Mobilizing nurses to volunteer care for older adults with disabilities is feasible in the future. Therefore, policymakers and leaders need to improve relevant laws and regulations to ensure the safety of volunteers, reduce the external hindrance factors of volunteer activities, pay attention to the cultivation of nursing staff values, identify the internal needs of nursing staff and improve incentive measures, to improve the willingness of nursing staff to participate and transform it into practical action.