Nurses' attitudes toward parent participation: personal and professional characteristics

A nonrandom sample of 273 registered nurses completed a questionnaire that included the Parent Participation Attitude Scale and a personal and professional data section. Analysis of variance indicated that subjects who were married, were parents, were nursing supervisors, had a collegiate nursing education, or worked in Hospital 1 or 4 had more positive attitudes toward parent participation than did subjects who did not possess these characteristics. Further study of nurses from 28 hospitals found that head nurses, nursing supervisors, nurses with a professional nursing education, and nurses with a master's degree in nursing had significantly more accepting attitudes than did nurses without these characteristics.