Nurses' beliefs and attitudes toward caring for children who fail to thrive

A descriptive design was used to investigate pediatric nurses' beliefs and attitudes towards caring for children who fail to thrive (FTT) in an attempt to identify factors affecting their behavior. The relevance of this description is demonstrated in the theory of reasoned action. The study sample (N = 29) was comprised of registered nurses employed in pediatric settings who had worked with children who fail to thrive. All salient beliefs elicited from an interview regarding the care of children who fail to thrive, as well as the mothers and families of these children, were considered to be negative, with the exception of 17% of those statements, which favorably addressed the mothers' personality. Except for playing with both groups of children, attitudes toward caring for children who fail to thrive were significantly more unfavorable than toward caring for children with sepsis (p < .05), a disease used as a control. Nurses were significantly more unfavorable toward caring for children who fail to thrive. It would seem that an intervention approach to alter nurses' attitudes and beliefs toward children who fail to thrive, rather than only addressing behavior, is indicated in order to improve the nature of care for those children.