Nurses' attitudes toward caring for relatives in the hospital setting

The problem of this study was to determine nurses' attitudes toward caring for patients in a hospital setting who are relatives compared to patients who are not relatives. The Perri Patient Care Questionnaire Part II was used to measure nurses' attitudes. A convenience sample of 33 registered nurses practicing in three community hospitals was used in this ex post facto study.

Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The largest percentage of nurses (33.3%) were between 41 and 50 years old, and 84.5% of the subjects had at least 10 years of nursing experience. A significant difference (t = $-$2.515, p =.008) was found between nurses' attitudes toward caring for patients who are relatives and patients who are not relatives. Therefore, these data support the directional hypothesis that nurses would have a more positive attitude toward caring for patients who are not their relatives compared to patients who are their relatives.