Beliefs, attitudes, perceived behavioral control, and intention of staff nurses to use music as therapy for premature infants in neonatal intensive care unit in Thailand

Although music therapy has been shown to benefit premature infants in terms of physiologic and behavioral responses, and growth, it is not yet widely used in the care of preterm infants. This may reflect the NICU staffs' perception of the effectiveness of music therapy and their ability to promote music therapy in the NICU environment. However, there is no information available on NICU staff nurse perceptions of music therapy in Thailand. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship among staff nurses' beliefs, attitudes toward music therapy, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and intentions to learn more about music therapy and to support its' use in NICUs in Thailand. This study used a descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional research design, utilizing the theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1991). The NICU Music Therapy Questionnaire (NICU MTQ) developed by the investigator measured all of the variables in this study. Participants in this study were 85 staff nurses from a NICU and a step-down unit of one large tertiary hospital in Thailand.;The findings revealed that the participants lacked experience with music therapy but nonetheless demonstrated positive attitudes, beliefs, and intentions related to music therapy. The relationship between each salient belief and attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control had highly positive correlations. The overall model demonstrated all three predictors (attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control) significantly influenced the staff nurses' intention.