GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT
The study was to assess the concern of newly employed nurses for self-care of patients
in hospitals in Akwa Ibom State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study
which was conducted in Akwa Ibom State. The population of the study consisted of all
the 2021/2022 newly employed nurses in Akwa Ibom State. Stratified sampling
technique was used to select 30 nurses from each of the three (3) senatorial districts in
Akwa Ibom State, giving a total of 90 newly employed nurses that constituted the
sample size used for the study. The instrument titled "Nurses and Self-Care of Patients
Questionnaire (NSCPQ)" was used for data collection. Face and contents validation of
the instrument was carried out by one expert in test, measurement, and evaluation to
ensure that the instrument was accurate for the study. Cronbach Alpha technique was
used to determine the level of reliability of the instrument. In this case, the average
reliability coefficient obtained was 0.84, and this was high enough to justify the use of
the instrument. The researcher subjected the data collected for this study to appropriate
statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics for answering the research questions
and independent t-test analysis for testing the hypotheses. The test for significance was
done at 0.05 alpha level. The study discovered that there is high extent of concern of
newly employed nurses for self-care of patients in hospitals in Akwa Ibom State. Newly
employed female nurses are more concerned for the self-care of patients in hospitals in
Akwa Ibom State than their male counterparts. Interestingly, it was also found that a
nurse’s health can affect the care he or she provides to patients. And also they are very
concerned about job anxiety control. Based on the findings of the study, it was
concluded that self-care behaviour of patients is relevant not only for preventing future
health problems, such as heart disease and lung cancer, but also for mediating the
course of long-term conditions of patients. One of the recommendations made was that
the newly employed nurses, apart from showing their patients effective care, should
ensure they train the patients to be self-dependent by undergoing self-care training so
as to tackle their health challenges on their own in the absence of the nurses.
KEYWORDS: Newly Employed Nurses, Patients, Concern, Self-Care and
Akwa Ibom State