Knowledge and Attitude of Nurses on Legal Aspects in Patient Care

A cross sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge and attitude of nurses on legal aspects in patient care. 510BSc and Diploma nurses working in Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital (Private) and Indira Gandhi Government General Hospital (Government) were selected by stratified random sampling technique. Questionnaire was used to collect information regarding socio demographic variables and level of knowledge of legal aspects among nurses. To measure the level of attitude, the semantic differential scale based upon a seven-point rating scale was used. The results revealed that 44.5% (227) of nurses had poor knowledge, 24.1% (123) of nurses had average knowledge, 21.2% (108) of nurses had good knowledge, 8.6% (44) of nurses had very good knowledge and 1.6% (8) of nurses had excellent knowledge. 65.5% (334) of nurses had highly favorable attitude and 34.5% (176) of nurses had moderately favorable attitude. The finding reveals that there was a statistically significant weak positive correlation (r=0.18) between knowledge and attitude among nurses (p<0.001) on legal aspects inpatient care management. The findings shows that there was significant association between the nurses knowledge with i) age, ii) educational status, iii) years of experience, iv)conferences/workshops attended, v) organization vi) nursing colleagues faced legal problems, vii)legal problems faced by self and viii)being oriented about legal aspects at p<0.05 level. There was significant association between the nurses attitude with i) age, ii) organization and iii) oriented about legal aspects at p<0.05 level.