Nurses' Fears and Professional Obligations Concerning Possible Human-to-Human Avian Flu

This survey aimed to illustrate factors that contribute to nurses' fear when faced with a possible human-to-human avian flu pandemic and their willingness to care for patients with avian flu in Taiwan. The participants were nursing students with a lesser nursing credential who were currently en...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nursing Ethics
Main Authors: Tzeng, Huey-Ming, Yin, Chang-Yi
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2006
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0969733006nej893oa
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/0969733006nej893oa
Description
Summary:This survey aimed to illustrate factors that contribute to nurses' fear when faced with a possible human-to-human avian flu pandemic and their willingness to care for patients with avian flu in Taiwan. The participants were nursing students with a lesser nursing credential who were currently enrolled in a bachelor degree program in a private university in southern Taiwan. Nearly 42% of the nurses did not think that, if there were an outbreak of avian flu, their working hospitals would have sufficient infection control measures and equipment to prevent nosocomial infection in their working environment. About 57% of the nurse participants indicated that they were willing to care for patients infected with avian influenza. Nurses' fear about an unknown infectious disease, such as the H5N1 influenza virus, could easily be heightened to levels above those occurring during the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Taiwan.