Variability of glove wearing by critical care nurses according to selected variables

The purpose of this study were to describe how much of the variability of glove wearing by critical care nurses can be explained by touch attitudes, task complexity, nurse variables (age, gender, major work area, and years in practice), and patient variables (age and gender); and the relationship between touch attitudes, task complexity, glove wearing, and nurse variables (age, gender, major work area, and years in practice). The Weidenbach (1964) model of nursing and the concept of touch were articulated with the social psychology models of Amabile (1983), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), and Bentler and Speckart (1979) to guide this study. The Touch Attitude Questionnaire and Glove Wearing Questionnaire were used for data collection.;A random sample of 853 critical care nurses from across the continental United States participated in this study. Data were examined from two perspectives: touch and glove wearing. Descriptive statistics were used to ascertain gender differences and describe the variables, while hierarchical multiple regression was used to analyze the proposed analytical model.;Respondent touch attitudes ranged from 0% (none of the time) to 100% (all of the time). Female critical care nurses touched slightly more than male critical care nurses. Of the selected critical care nurse variables examined, gender was the only statistically significant one.;Data were randomly selected by computer and subdivided into five sets (N = 853) to address the multicolinearity issue posed by data entry. The statistically significant variables related to glove wearing varied slightly for each of the five sets of data examined with the variable of task complexity being consistent for all five sets when compared to intensive care/coronary care nurses and holding all the other variables constant. Descending order of significance for variables related to glove wearing include task complexity, years in practice, patient age, and major work area (progressive intensive care). Respondent glove wearing practices ranged from noncompliance to total compliance with CDC recommendations based on patient variables of age, gender, major work area, and years in practice, and task complexity. Findings reflected that touch is used 79% of the time by critical care nurses as a means of communication and in the delivery of patient care, and there is a need for vigilant monitoring of recommended CDC guidelines relative to glove wearing.