A Cross-Sectional Examination on the Factors Related to Emergency Nurses’ Motivation to Protect Themselves against an Ebola Infection

Leigh, Laurasona; Taylor, Colleen; Glassman, Tavis; Thompson, Amy; Sheu, Jiunn-Jye

Abstract Introduction The 2014-2016 West African Ebola outbreak impacted the United States. Due to the sporadic occurrence of the Ebola infection, there is insufficient research regarding how the United States emergency nurses provide care to patients potentially infected with the Ebola virus and the nurses’ motivation to protect themselves when providing care to these patients. This study was aimed to investigate the predictors of emergency room nurse’s protection motivation. Method A cross-sectional design was employed in the study. A survey developed based on a modified Protection Motivation Theory was administered to randomly selected emergency room nurses who are members of the Emergency Nurses Association. Descriptive statistics, nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis H-Test (as well as post hoc Dunn-Bonferroni test), Spearman Rho correlation, and Stepwise Multiple Linear regression were conducted for data analysis. Result Protection motivation was found in two components: proactive and passive protection motivation. The regression analysis indicated that response efficacy (β=.27, p<.001) and self-efficacy (β=.17, p<.01) significantly predict emergency nurses’ proactive protection motivation, while perceived vulnerability (β=.26, p<.001), response cost (β=.19, p=.001) and knowledge (β=-.15, p<.01) significantly predict emergency nurses’ passive protection motivation. Conclusion Results indicate the need for interventions to improve emergency nurses’ response efficacy, self-efficacy, and knowledge, while simultaneously reducing the nurses’ perceived vulnerability and response cost. Such interventions would be expected to proactively motivate nurses to protect themselves when providing care to patients that exhibit the signs and symptoms of an Ebola infection and reduce their passive protection motivation.