Attitudes, Knowledge, Self-efficacy, and Behaviors of Nurses in Nutritional Care for Older People

Even if awareness among nurses regarding the importance of nutritional care for older people has increased in recent years, nurses continue to underestimate the necessary approach to prevent malnutrition. Therefore, some authors have argued the critical importance of understanding which factors can influence nurses' caring behaviors during real situations and affect the prevention and management of malnutrition under actual working conditions. Specifically, the relationship between nurses' attitudes, knowledge, and self-efficacy in nutritional care for older people has not been described yet. Understanding these relationships can provide a framework to enhance adequate caring behaviors, mitigating the negative attitudes.Considering that self-efficacy has been previously theorized in several populations as the mediator of the relationship from knowledge and attitudes to specific behaviors, the investigators hypothesized that knowledge and attitudes in the specific area of nursing nutritional care have moderately positive effects on nursing caring behaviors in nutritional care only through the mediation of nursing self-efficacy.The study design is a multi-phase, descriptive observational cross-sectional, multicentric study, collecting data using a web-survey.

Inclusion Criteria:to be a nurse;aged ≥ 18 years;full-time work contract;work experience: more than six months of experience in the same ward;work experience in nutritional care for older people (people aged 60 years and older).Exclusion Criteria:not available to participate in the study;not compiling the informed consent (via the same web-survey);working in critical care settings (e.g., intensive care units, emergency demertments);working in outpatient settings.