OPERATIONALIZING THEORETICAL CONSTRUCTS IN BLOODBORNE PATHOGENS TRAINING CURRICULUM

This article describes how the protection motivation theory (PMT) was used to inform the production of video curriculum for a bloodborne pat hogens training program for hospital nurses. Although hospital nurses are well acquainted with the work practices designed to prevent bloodb orne pathogen exposures (universal precautions), there is evidence tha t they do not always follow them First, the original PMT is adapted to reflect what is currently known about the role of affect in health be havior prediction. Second, the authors show how the four PMT message c onstructs-probability of occurrence, magnitude of noxiousness, respons e efficacy, and self-efficacy-guided the planning, shooting, and editi ng of the videotapes. Incidental to this process was the operationaliz ation of these mess age constructs in such a way that affective reacti ons would result. The results show that this video curriculum successf ully aroused negative affect in the target audience. Only by carefully planning and documenting how message constructs are operationalized i n health education materials can one be sure of achieving theory-based (and thus the most replicable) message design.