NURSES ATTITUDES TOWARDS TERMINATION OF PREGNANCY

This questionnaire study (n = 84) investigated several aspects of the attitudes of nurses of various grades and clinical settings towards te rmination of pregnancy (TOP). The majority of nurses had attitudes whi ch lay within the undecided to positive range of the continuum, simila r to findings from previous North American and British research. Very few were found to have extremely positive or negative attitudes. Sever al factors were significantly associated with negative attitudes towar ds TOP: frequency of involvement in TOP, length of time spent working on a gynaecology ward, religious affiliation, and ethnicity. Some disc repancy in nurses' attitudes was found with respect to both the length of a woman's gestation and the circumstances for which the procedure was being performed. In view of these findings, the implications for n ursing practice are discussed.