Surgical Nurses’ need for affect and their caregiving approaches

Abstract

Emotions affect the behaviors of people and their cognitively-performed tasks. In surgical clinics that can be seen as emotionally intensive units, nurses may show a tendency to approach and/or avoid affect while they identify and meet patients’ care needs. This study aimed to examine the correlation between surgical nurses’ caregiving roles and approach towrads and/or avoidance of affect. This relational study was performed with 118 surgical nurses who volunteered to participate in the study, in a university hospital in north-western Turkey. For data collection, “Need for affect scale”, “Attitude scale for nurses in caregiving roles” and “Data collection form” were used. It was found that about half of the nurses encountered emotionally intense situations in their clinics;deaths at a younger age and deaths while suffering pain were seen as emotionally intense situations by the nurses. Nurses’ attitudes to their caregiving roles were at a good level, and there is a statistically significant relationship between approach towards affect and these attitudes. Nurses should examine their own emotions with regard to emotionally intense situations, consider the effects of the emotions on their caregiving activities, and reflect on their skills in terms of recognizing and understanding emotions with regard to the care of their patients. In other clinical settings and special units, the relationship between nurses’ approaches towards affect and their caring activities should be examined in further research.