Implementing change in nurses' professional behaviours: limitations of the cognitive approach

This paper reports on a study of the effects of an intervention on a group of nurses' professional behaviours and on the process of behaviour change, according to the cognitive approach. The quasi-experimental design followed in the study resembles the time-series design. The study took place in a general state hospital in Lisboa and centred on the cardiology unit. Subjects were all nurses giving direct patient care (n = 17). The study extended over a period of 13 months. Results showed that the effects of the intervention were the adoption of some of the expected behaviours. Several questions were raised by the study, and the discussion points out some of the limitations of a cognitive approach to the understanding of the process of change of nurses' professional behaviours.