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Attitudes of a selected population of community health nurses toward parents or guardians who physically abuse children

University of British Columbia

A replication of Reilly's study (1980) was conducted in order to describe the attitudes of community health nurses who work with parents and children toward child abusers; to determine the relationship between the attitudes of the community health nurses and selected social and professional variables; to compare the attitudes of these nurses to the attitudes of the registered nurses studied by Reilly (1980); to compare the attitudes of the community health nurses in the randomly selected group with the attitudes of the community health nurses in the convenience group; and last, to describe the data presented by the community health nurses in regard to their experiences with child abuse. The population consisted of community health nurses. One sample population of one hundred and fifty-seven subjects was randomly selected from the community health nurses employed by the British Columbia Ministry of Health. A second sample population of fifteen subjects was self-selected from the community health nurses employed in two of the Health Units of Metropolitan Health Services of Greater Vancouver. The attitudes of the community health nurses toward child abusers were measured by a Likert-type Attitudinal Instrument developed by Reilly (1980). Information regarding the selected social and professional variables was obtained by a biographical data sheet also developed by Reilly (1980). Data regarding the community health nurses' experiences with child abuse were collected by open-ended questions. The correlated data from the attitude scores and the background data sheet were analyzed through the process of inferential analysis and descriptive statistics. Data regarding the subjects' experiences with child abuse were summarized by the process of content analysis and descriptive statistics. The results of the study revealed that the community health nurses' attitudes toward child abusers were more favorable than unfavorable. This finding substantiated Reilly's (1980) finding regarding registered nurses' attitudes toward child abusers. In addition, it was shown that the variable, whether the subjects have seen an abused child, significantly affected the attitude scores of the community health nurses in the randomly selected group. The study did not support Reilly's (1980) findings that the subjects' present level of education and whether the subjects have met an abusing parent or detected a case of child abuse significantly affected the attitude scores. The study also found that community health nurses experience a multitude of frustrations in the management of child abuse. In addition, it was found that a significant percentage of the nurses expressed a need for further instruction regarding the treatment of child abuse.

Text

2010-03-29

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/22915

Nursing

University of British Columbia

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