The effects of nurses’ attitude on patients demand for healthcare: A case study of the Kumasi Metropolis.

Abstract

Nursing is considered as a commendable profession that is responsible in providing care as well as attention to patients. The overall attitude of a caregiver affects the patient physically, spiritually and emotionally. The patient is more likely to have a positive attitude himself and potentially improve at a faster rate, if the nurse is positive. This study adopted (Soai 2012, consultancy African International) to establish that nurse‟s attitude could affect patients demand for healthcare. The study used personally administered questionnaires to gather information related to the subject matter whilst using purposive sampling method in selecting people (patients) at the study area. Specifically, the study used logit regression as the empirical method of estimation. The study revealed that, greater percentage of patients suffered in one way or the other from poor nurse‟s attitude. Given this, the study has shown that nurse‟s attitude do impact the demand for healthcare. It is therefore recommended that, nursing education and practices need to be strengthened at all levels to ensure that knowledge acquired by students during training is translated into good nursing practices in the professional environment.