| Suicide, a preventable public health problem, is at epidemic levels in the United States and globally (Bolster, Holliday, Oneal, & Shaw, 2015). Negative attitudes among nursing personnel present a major obstacle in providing appropriate and timely interventional care for the suicidal patient. On the other hand, a nurse’s positive attitude toward a suicidal patient may be key in preventing a future suicide attempt or a completed suicide. The attitude a nurse has towards a suicidal patient has the potential to have a direct impact on patient safety, patient quality of care, and patient outcomes.
A non-experimental, descriptive, correlational design was utilized in this dissertation study. A total of 305 nurses completed the online questionnaire that was a combination of three surveys: Attitudes Towards Suicide Questionnaire (ATAS-Q), the Suicide Behavior Attitude Questionnaire (SBAQ) and the Professional Quality of Life Survey (ProQoL). The purpose of the research was to focus on multidimensional factors that are associated with nurses’ attitudes towards the care of the suicidal patient in hospital settings. These relationships included the components of attitude, the demographics of the nurse, compassion, and the self-reported professional capacity to care for the suicidal patient. Nine research questions examined the unique and distinct relationships among attitude factors and between attitude and the care of the suicidal patient.
The results from the study showed that age and nursing experience are inversely related to overall attitude towards the care of the suicidal patient. Additionally, this study showed that a self-reported perception of professional capacity to care for the suicidal patient was inversely related to overall attitude. Another important finding of this study showed a strong relationship between cognitive attitude and behavioral attitude and another significant yet weaker relationship between affective attitude and behavioral attitude. A strong inverse relationship was found between Compassion Satisfaction and Compassion Fatigue and a higher affective attitude towards the suicidal patient was associated with lower levels of Compassion Satisfaction.
Further research focused on components that have a direct relationship to the cognitive component of attitude is recommended. Additionally, a qualitative study examining how overall attitude is perceived from the patient’s perspective would offer additional and important insight. |