Self-care agency, nursing knowledge, attitudes and practices involving biological hazard in nursing students

Abstract

Introduction: The approach of this research is related to self-care agency showed by nursing students when having their training practice in the health-related area. Purpose: To analyze the relation between self-care agency and nursing knowledge, attitudes and practices involving biological hazard in nursing students from a higher education institution in Bucaramanga. Materials and Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional study of correlational-analytical type was conducted with a sample of 187 students from IV to VIII level of a nursing degree in a higher education institution in Bucaramanga, to whom the self-care agency scale was applied. This scale is used to measure nursing knowledge, attitude and practice involving biological hazards. Results: There is a significant relationship between self-care agency and attitudes (p<0.05). On the other hand, regular self-care agency is shown in 79.1% of the students. There is no statistically significant relationship between sociodemographic variables and the self-care agency through the chi-squared test. Discussion: The results found in this study coincide with those found by other researchers who state that self-care agency is kept at a regular level in most of the population. Conclusions: A relationship was demonstrated between self-care agency and attitudes regarding biological hazards in students, which confirms the importance of nursing work to strengthen favorable behavior towards their self-care.