Family involvement in nurs¡ng care - a resource or burden? : from the perspective of Tanzanian nurses

Sammanfattning: The health of the individual affects all family members, and families influence the process and outcome of healthcare. Nurses attitudes about the importance of involving the patients families in nursing care, greatly influences the quality of the meeting between the family and the nurse. Nurses working inTanzania feel they can not provide adequate healthcare due to heavy work load and limited resources. Tanzanian nurses and patients are highly dependent on the help of the patients' families. The aim of the study was to investigate Tanzanian nurses' attitudes towards involvement of patients' families in nursing care. In this quantitative, descriptive study, a questionnaire called "Families'importance in NursingCare-Nurses'Attitudes" (FINC-NA) was handed out to registered nurses working at a regional hospital inTanzania in 2009. The results were analysed and presented by descriptive statistics such as charts, tables and central values. The 47 nurses who answered the questionnaire had in general supportive attitudes towards the involvement of the patients' family in nursing care. One fifth of the nurses however viewed the patients' families as a burden. One third of the nurses feel that the presence of the patients' families holds them back in their work. Nurses above 40 years of age and nurses with no experience of a familymember being seriously ill had less supportive attitudes towards patients family involvement compared to other subgroups in this study. The nurses with least years of nursing experience had the most supportive attitudes of all the subgroups. Besides nurses own experience of an ill familymember, this study suggests that attitudes are affected by culture, working environment and education.