Examining the relationship between nurses' attitudes towards futile treatments and their professional values

The population of the descriptive study, which was conducted to examine the relationship between professional values and the futile treatment attitudes of nurses working in four public, four private and one university hospitals providing inpatient treatment in Gaziantep Province, consisted of nurses working between December 2021 and April 2022. The sample consisted of 568 nurses who met the inclusion criteria. The data of the study were collected with the "Nurse Descriptive Characteristics Form", "Nurses' Professional Values Scale" and "Nurses' Attitudes Towards Futile Treatments Scale". It was determined that the average age of the nurses participating in the study was 27.90±6.19 years, 72.4% were women, 49.9% had a bachelor's degree or higher, 66.4% were single, 48.6% worked in private hospitals and 39.1% worked in intensive care units. It was determined that 23.1% of the nurses applied useless treatment or care, 15.3% of the practitioners did it every day and 14.3% once a week. The mean Nurses' Professional Values Scale score of the nurses was 114.06±23.41 and it was found to be at a good level, and the mean of the Nurses' Attitudes Towards Futile Treatments Scale score was 44.68±7.55, and it was found to be at a moderate level. A statistically significant correlation was found between Nurses' Professional Values Scale and Nurses' Attitudes Towards Futile Treatments Scale, in the negative direction, at a weak level (r=-0.158, p<0.001). As a result, it can be said that there is a negative and low-level significant relationship between nurses' attitudes towards futile treatment and their professional values, and as the professional values of nurses increase, their attitudes towards futile treatment or care practice decrease. For this reason, it is recommended to increase in-service trainings and create courses and certificate programs to increase the professional values of nurses. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of future trainings, it is recommended to conduct new researches before and after the training. Keywords: Futile Treatment, Professional Values, Nurse