Aphinya Phosrithong.  1993.  Variables Relating to Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients of Nurses in the
Department of Medical Services, MinIstry of Public Health. Dissertation, M.S. (Behavioral Science) Behavioral
Science Research  Institute. 


                  The purpose of this study were 1) to find the relationships between Closeness to Dharma, Buddhist
Belief, Buddhist Practice,  Moral Reasoning, Attitude towards Nursing Profession, Mental Health and Perception of
Social Support and Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients and 2) to investigate the combinational effect of Closeness to
Dharma and Bio-social and background characteristics. 
                  The sample used in this study consisted of 293  nurses who had experience in nursing for old age
patients from Rajavithi Hospital, Lerdsin Hospital, Nopparatratchatanee Hospital and National Cancer Institute of the
Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health. The instruments were Closeness to Dharma Questionnaire,
Buddhist Belief Questionnaire, Buddhist Practice Questionnaire, Moral Reasoning Questionnaire, Attitude towards
Nursing Profession Questionnaire, Mental Health Questionnaire, Perception of Social Support Questionnaire and Nursing
Behavior for Old Age Patients Questionnaire. The Multiple Regression Analysis method Stepwise and Enter, two-ways
Analysis of Variance were used for data analyzing. 
                The results of this study were as follows : 
                1. Buddhist Belief, Buddhist Practice, Moral Reasoning, Attitude towards Nursing Pofession, Mental Health
and Perception of  Social Support could together predict Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients. The determination
power was 19% 
                2.  The important predictors that can significantly predicted Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients were
Buddhist Practice, Perception of Social Support, Moral Reasoning, Attitude towards Nursing Profession and Buddhist
belief. 
                3.  Predictor of Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients in nurses who scored high on the Closeness to Dharma
Questionnaire was Buddhist Practice. The determination power 
was 11% 
                4.  Predictors of Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients in nurses who scored low on the Closeness to Dharma
Questionnaire were Moral Resoning, Buddhist Belief and Attitude towards Nursing Profession. The determination power
was 14 % 
                5.  There was no interaction effect between Closeness to Dharma and Leve of Nurse, Age, Marritial Status and
Experience in working. 
                6.  Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients was significantly differed between nurses who had high score on the
Closeness to Dharma Questionnaire and nurse with lower score. Specifically nurses with high Closeness to Dharma score
had better nursing  behavior than the other group. 
               7.  Nursing Behavior for Old Age Patients was significantly differed between Professional Nurse and Technical
Nurse. Specifically Profssional Nurse had better behavior than Technical Nurse. 
              8.  Nursing Behavior  for Old Age Patients was significantly difered between nurse who had high experience in
working and nurses with lower experience in working. Specifically nurse with high experience had better nursing
behavior than the other group. 

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