What factors influence nurses' behavior in supporting patient self-management? An explorative questionnaire study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Practice
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Self-Management

Background:

• Nurses face challenges in supporting chronically ill patients with self-management.
• Effective self-management support requires specific competencies and is difficult to implement.
• Current understanding of nurses' daily self-management support behaviors and influencing factors is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore nurses' self-reported behaviors regarding self-management support in a university hospital.
• To identify factors influencing nurses' self-management support behaviors.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey design was employed.
• A web-based questionnaire assessed self-efficacy, performance, attitude, subjective norms, and perceived barriers using the SEPSS-36 instrument.
• Data were collected from 347 nurses at a university hospital.

Main Results:

• Nurses reported high self-efficacy and performance in self-management support, but a significant gap (p<0.001) was observed between self-efficacy and actual behavior.
• Perceived lack of time and patient knowledge were identified as barriers but did not significantly influence behavior (p>0.05).
• Regression analysis revealed that perceived lack of own knowledge, absence of perceived patient need, and nurses' self-efficacy explained 41.1% of the variance in behavior.

Conclusions:

• A significant discrepancy exists between nurses' self-reported self-efficacy and their behavior in providing self-management support.
• Enhancing self-management support requires addressing influential factors such as perceived knowledge gaps and patient needs.
• Future interventions should focus on improving nurses' reflective skills and awareness, as many do not perceive a need for additional training.