Elsevier

Journal of Professional Nursing

Volume 32, Issue 6, November–December 2016, Pages 487-493
Journal of Professional Nursing

Original Article
Survey of Nursing Students' Self-Reported Knowledge of Ebola Virus Disease, Willingness to Treat, and Perceptions of their Duty to Treat

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.05.004Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The Survey of Nursing Students' Self-Reported Knowledge of Ebola Virus Disease, Willingness to Treat, and Perceptions of their Duty to Treat was developed for use.

  • Licensed students scored significantly higher on knowledge of EVD than prelicensure counterparts; students with increased knowledge and older age scored higher on duty to treat.

  • Duty to treat was not influenced by partnered, single, or had or did not have children.

  • Providing EVD education for nursing students and nurses is imperative to ensure that nurses will show up to work during an EVD outbreak.

The purpose of this study was to explore nursing students' self-reported knowledge of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), willingness to treat patients with EVD, and student perceptions of duty to treat patients with EVD. The researchers developed the Survey of Nursing Student Self-Reported Knowledge of EVD, Willingness to Treat, and Perceptions of Duty to Treat, a quantitative tool with open-ended questions to inform the responses. On-line survey software was used for gathering anonymous data. A mixture of descriptive, nonparametric, and parametric statistics were used to describe, compare, and examine relationships between variables. Results demonstrated that licensed students scored significantly higher on self-reported knowledge of EVD than their prelicensure student counterparts (P = .039). Licensed students and prelicensure students did not differ on self-assessed willingness to treat (P > .05). The students had significantly higher willingness-to-treat scores when self-reported knowledge scores were higher (P = .007) and when they were older (P = .004). Willingness to treat was not influenced by whether one was partnered or single (P > .05) or had children or did not have children (P > .05). In conclusion, basic EVD knowledge and training appears to be critical to ensure willingness to treat. However, it is imperative that students have an indepth understanding of the principles of infectious diseases in general.

Section snippets

Literature Review

There is a paucity of literature related to nursing students' self-reported knowledge, willingness to treat, and perceptions of duty to treat infectious disease patients in general and specifically related to EVD. However, several studies examined willingness to treat infectious diseases in nursing and other health care professions. There seemed to be consensus that willingness to treat patients with infectious diseases correlated with education. As education increased, so did willingness to

Definitions

In this study, the willingness to treat was operationalized as the likelihood of nursing students reporting to clinicals in hospitals where patients were suspected of having EVD, caring for patients with EVD at clinicals, and the likelihood of participants refusing to care for patients with EVD as a student. In addition, participants responded to questions pertaining to the likelihood of coming to work and caring for patients with EVD as a licensed registered nurse (RN). Duty to treat has been

Design and Methods

This research study was a cross-sectional survey involving students currently enrolled in nursing programs at two different universities located in two southern states. Nursing programs included traditional bachelor of science (BSN), RN-to-BSN, master of science (MSN), doctorate of nursing practice (DNP), and doctor of philosophy (PhD) in nursing. All participants other than the traditional BSN students (N = 216) were licensed RNs (N = 97). Six questions guided this study of nursing student

Sample

Following approval of the research project by the institutional review board at both universities, a convenience sample of individuals who attended a nursing program at either university were recruited. Inclusion criteria comprised being 18 years old or older, being able to read and write in English, and being fully admitted into a nursing program at either university. Researchers distributed information and the electronic link to the survey through university e-mail systems. Received and read

Instruments

A review of the literature did not reveal an instrument to measure health care providers' willingness to treat patients with highly infectious diseases such as EVD. Subsequently, the researchers developed a questionnaire, the Survey of Nursing Student Self-Reported Knowledge of EVD, Willingness to Treat, and Perceptions of Duty to Treat, consisting of eight demographic questions, a single item self-assessment of EVD-related knowledge rated poor (0) to excellent (4), and a seven-item

Procedures

All nursing students in both university nursing programs were queried via e-mail as to whether they would like to participate in this anonymous survey after being given a brief description. Participation implied consent, and the e-mail contained a link to the electronic survey. There were 966 e-mails sent out to students at University 1 and 613 e-mails sent out to students at the University 2. Of the 1579 e-mails sent out inviting students to participate, 308 completed responses from the two

Data Analysis

A mixture of descriptive, nonparametric, and parametric statistics were used to describe, compare, and examine relationships between variables. Descriptive statistics and the Mann–Whitney test were used to answer questions related to EVD knowledge differences between licensed and prelicensure nursing students. An independent t test was used to compare licensed and prelicensure students' summed scores on the willingness-to-treat scale. Correlations between knowledge, select demographic

Results

No substantive differences were found between the students of the two universities. The findings addressed the students' knowledge and willingness to treat patients with EVD.

Discussion

The survey results demonstrated that licensed student nurses had significantly higher self-reported knowledge than their prelicensure counterparts. At the time of this survey, those working in hospitals were receiving frequent updates about EVD patient care. This was evident in responses to the open-ended question about education; those who worked in hospitals reported more educational information than those who were prelicensure and not exposed to the frequent updates. The two groups did not

Implications for Education, Practice, and Research

Implications for nursing education means including basic information related to EVD in the curriculum is relevant and desired by nursing students. Nursing faculty do not need to be experts in EVD care, but they do need to understand facts and provide opportunities to apply the knowledge. Nursing faculty must prepare students about personal protection (equipment and techniques), universal precautions, and exposure management (Verkat et al., 2015). Practical application for faculty may mean

Strengths and Limitations

This study used a researcher developed questionnaire and the instrument only has face validity. However, because there was no tool available to measure self-assessed knowledge of EVD, willingness to treat, and perception of a duty to treat, researchers familiar with these concepts reviewed the survey to ensure that the domains were encompassed. The inclusion of qualitative data expanded and supported the quantitative results. The Chronbach's alpha of the willingness-to-treat scale was 0.92,

Conclusion

In summary, the findings suggested that nursing students are willing to treat patients with EVD. The major concerns included personal safety and knowledge deficits. This is good news because it appears that nursing students understand the ethical implications of willingness to treat and it ensures an available workforce for future outbreaks.

Although it is not recommend that nursing students treat patients with highly infectious diseases (Verkat et al., 2015), the authors recommend that students

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