PREDICTORS OF NURSING CARE BEHAVIORS IN CRITICAL CARE UNITS

Taking care of patients is a moral necessity. Caring behaviors includes actions
and behaviors provided by nurses as physical, emotional, social, and spiritual & psychosocial cares for
patients. In fact, it is assumed that feeling cared by patients is due to caring behaviors.
Objective: Determining predictors of nursing care behaviors in critical care units.
Material & Methods: The present study is a descriptive-analytical study in which all of 350nurses who
were working in Icu′s of Urmia city selected as sample. The questionnaire were consists of 3 parts
including Demographic characteristics, Larsson Care Behavior Questionnaire (Q-Care) and
Determinants Questionnaire of Care Behavior (DNCB). Data were analyzed by using Spss20 software
at significance level of p<0/05.
Results: From ICU nurses view of point, the most important dimensions of care behaviors were”
accessibility”, “explains”, “monitors”. Based on Regression analysis, predictors of “accessibility” were
sense of job security, demand of the patient or system, predictors of “explain” were age of the nurse,
sense of responsibility, gender of the patient and predictors of “monitors” were job experience, believe
in the need to deliver quality care, feeling of being a valuable employee in the system, time allocated to
direct care.
Conclusion: The results of this research might be applied at different levels of nursing education and
management. In order to improve quality of care, nursing managers and authorities just need to focus
on predictors of each care dimension. This finally, of course decrease their expenditure and the time
allocated for quality improvement projects