The aim of this study was to examine the health promoting role of nurses working in the Open Care Centres for Older People (KAPI) and determine the factors that influence this role.
Method: This was a pilot questionnaire study with a cross-sectional design. The questionnaire used in the study was an existing one which has been translated into Greek and implemented to a population of school nurses. The sample included 33 nurses that worked in KAPIs in the greater Athens area. For data analysis descriptive statistics and non-parametric statistical tests were used.
Results: Though the community nurses working at the KAPIs revealed a very positive attitude towards health promotion, demonstrating that they recognised that health promotion was a characteristic of their work, the fact that they based their schedules on the guidelines from the relevant public authorities indicates that if those authorities were absent only a small portion of nurses would be willing to take part on their design.
Furthermore, the fact that the majority of nurses believes that chances to influence policy decisions are only rarely provided, creates obstacles and an absence of autonomy in the completion of their work.
The conclusion is that the nurses who work at KAPI consider that health promotion for the elderly is an important part of their role, but they do not exploit adequately the autonomy that is provided to them in order to improve the health conditions for the members of KAPI.