494 ATTITUDES TOWARD PERINATAL CARE IN COMMUNITY HOSPITALS

Abstract

At the time of on-site observations of the perinatal services of 9 community hospitals, interviews and discussions were held with nursing personnel. Unexpectedly, these interviews suggested that hospital personnel held fatalistic attitudes that could potentially interfere with optimal perinatal care.From these interviews, 51 statements regarding perinatal attitudes were written. The items were condensed to 32 statements through a pilot study and the resulting attitude survey was administered to 435 perinatal physicians, nurses, and support personnel from community hospitals. The data from the survey were subjected to a principle components factor analysis with squared multiple correlations in the diagonal and a Varimax rotation. The factors to be rotated were selected by Kaiser's criterion and the following were identified as general attitudes: (1) it does little good to anticipate perinatal problems; (2) some babies are predestined to be unhealthy; (3) some sick babies survive only because they have a “will to live”. These respective attitudes were expressed by 12.1%, 9.4% and 38.2% of the individuals. The survey was readministered after a 4 month educational program. Preliminary results show a statistically significant shift toward less fatalistic attitudes following the program.We conclude that (1) non-facilitating attitudes toward perinatal care exist in community hospitals and (2) these attitudes can be favorably influenced by an educational program.