ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF NURSES ON WEARING NURSE UNIFORM AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG NURSES WORKING IN HOSPITALS OF NORTHWEST ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Introduction: Wearing uniform is a form of communication about what that individual’s responsibility is. Such communication takes place among the wearer, the organization and the public in general. However there were no studies so far in Ethiopia which assessed attitude and practice of wearing Nurse Uniform. Objectives: To assess the attitude and practice of nurses on wearing nurse uniform and associated factors in hospitals of North West Ethiopia. Methods: Hospital based cross-sectional study was conducted from March to April, 2014 in five hospitals located in Northwest Ethiopia. A total 459 nurses participated in the study. Self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Bi-variate and multivariate logistic regression were used to assess the association of different variables with attitude and practice on wearing nurse uniform. Results: Out of 459 nurses, 226 (49.2%) wear nurse uniform. The most important reason for not wearing nurse uniform was “there is no specific uniform for nurses which is recommended by the hospital management (35.2%). About 74% had favorable attitude on wearing nurse uniform. Sex [AOR=2.96, 95%CI (1.78, 4.92)], type of hospital, Felegehiwot [AOR=5.68, 95%CI (1.49, 21.67)], Metema and Debark hospitals [AOR=6.15, 95%CI (1.55, 24.45)] and study nursing by preference AOR=4.27, 95%CI (2.56, 7.14)], showed significant association with attitude on wearing nurse uniform. Similarly, sex, [AOR=1.58, 95% CI, (1.02, 2.44)] type of hospital, [AOR=0.37, 95%CI (0.14, 0.93)].Studied nursing by preference [AOR =3.16, 95% CI (2.03, 4.92)], and attitude [AOR=3.43 95% CI (1.96, 5.98)] showed significant association with nurse uniform wearing practice. Conclusion and recommendation: More than half of the nurses were not wearing nurse uniform, the main reason being ‘there is no specific uniform for nurses which is recommended by the hospital management’. More than one-fourth of the nurses have unfavorable attitude on wearing nurse uniform. Sex, type of hospital, and studying nursing by preference were the most important factors associated with attitude and practice of wearing nurse uniform. Attitude towards wearing nurse uniform also had effect on practice of wearing nurse uniform. Developing uniform wearing policy and guideline; favoring the females to study and practice nursing; reaching consensus with nurses on the type of uniform to be worn by the nurses are among the recommendations to solve the problem.