Understanding social workers' intention to provide palliative care in Saudi Arabia
Abstract
[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT REQUEST OF AUTHOR.] This study is about understanding social worker (SW)s' intention to provide palliative care (PC) in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this nonexperimental, quantitative, explanatory, correlation study was to explain SWs intention to provide PC in Saudi Arabia. The study utilized the Theory of Planned Behavior as a framework to address the association between SWs intention to provide PC and their attitude, subjective norms, and perceived control (PBC) to provide PC in Saudi Arabia. A sample of 144 medical SWs in Saudi Arabia completed a web-based survey. The results showed that more than half of the participants had high intention to provide PC. SWs intention to provide PC in Saudi Arabia was positively associated with subjective norms (i.e. social pressure or support) and positively associated with their PBC over providing PC. This study found that SWs general attitude toward PC is indirectly associated with their intention to provide PC. The study did not find gender differences in the association between the three main predictors and SWs intention to provide PC. More than half of the participants learned about PC through informal sources. Study findings can inform educator and scholars when forming educational and training programs to take into consideration social and control aspects of social work practice in PC. Further research in social work education and practice in Saudi Arabia is needed to widen the scope of the contribution of social work in PC.
Degree
Ph. D.
Thesis Department
Rights
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