Chest
Volume 114, Issue 4, October 1998, Pages 1193-1198
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Special Report
Attitudes of Respiratory Care Practitioners and Students Regarding Pulmonary Prevention

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Study objectives

(1) To examine attitudes of respiratory care practitioners (RCPs) and RCP students toward pulmonary disease prevention behaviors and their role in promoting them. (2) To compare RCPs’ attitudes regarding pulmonary prevention with existing medical student survey data.

Design

Cross-sectional survey.

Setting

Three sites (Valhalla, NY; Winston-Salem, NC; Houston, TX).

Participants

One hundred ninety RCPs and 164 RCP students compared with 5,744 medical students.

Measurement and results

Subjects completed a 35-item RCP Preventive Pulmonary Attitude (PPA) Survey using a five-point scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). A higher score indicates a more positive attitude toward prevention. RCP total scores averaged 117.6 (SD, 15.7; range, 52 to 160). RCP student total scores were significantly higher than RCP practitioners. No significant differences were observed by gender or by type of patient served (pediatric vs adult). RCPs with a history of tobacco smoking had significantly lower scores than RCPs who had never smoked. Most, but not all, respondents acknowledged the importance of patients with chronic lung disease receiving a yearly influenza vaccination. Total PPA scores for medical students were significantly lower than scores for both RCPs and RCP students. Significant differences were noted for a number of individual items.

Conclusions

In general, RCPs had positive attitudes regarding the importance of prevention counseling and their role in providing this to patients. This is important given their potential as a resource in pulmonary prevention efforts. More attention to inclusion of training and evaluation of RCP effectiveness in promoting respiratory health is needed.

Section snippets

Study Population

RCP students and graduates were surveyed at three sites (Valhalla, NY; Winston-Salem, NC; and Houston, TX) between 1993 and 1996. RCP graduates surveyed in New York and Texas were participants in a regional continuing education conference sponsored by the Westchester County Medical Center and a district seminar sponsored by the Texas Society for Respiratory Care. RCP graduates surveyed in North Carolina were working at the North Carolina Baptist Hospital affiliated with Wake Forest University

Descriptive Statistics

A total of 397 graduate and student RCPs completed the survey, including 76 from Winston-Salem, NC, 173 from Valhalla, NY, and 148 from Houston, TX. There were 164 RCP students and 190 RCP graduates in the sample; 43 RCPs did not indicate their training status. The mean age was 35 years (SD, 8.2 years; range, 20 to 64 years) for the RCP practitioners and 28.5 years (SD, 7.0 years; range, 18 to 48 years) for the RCP students. Age was not provided by 16% of respondents. There were 54.7% female

Summary

Traditional roles of RCPs have focused on administration of oxygen, medications, and mechanical ventilation, with particular emphasis on technological aspects of management. With current recognition of the importance of preventive therapy, active respiratory health promotion programs, and increased involvement of nonphysician medical professionals, the positive attitudes manifest in the current survey assume particular importance.

Overall, RCP respondents had a positive orientation toward

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors would like to thank Pamela Dautel and Tracy Mosely for their assistance in data analysis and preparation of this report.

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This research was funded by NHLBI Preventive Pulmonary Academic Awards (M. Sockrider HL02606; G. Maguire HL02318; E. Haponik HL02479)

Portions of this report were presented at the 1996 International Conference of the American Thoracic Society, New Orleans, LA (Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1996; 153(4, part 2):A81)

Reprints of the pulmonary disease prevention survey results may be requested through the corresponding author

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