Determinants of Nurses' Attitudes toward the Care of Patients with Alcohol Problems

Abstract

Nurses (n = 49, age = 39 ± 11 y) from an Australian metropolitan hospital completed the Marcus Alcoholism, Seaman Mannello Nurses' Attitudes toward Alcoholism, and the shortened Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Perception Questionnaires. The majority had personal (73%) and/or professional (93%) experience with people with alcohol problems. Not one reported receiving drug and alcohol training. On average, nurses held neutral to positive attitudes toward alcohol problems; however, 14.3% completely disagreed with the statement “I want to work with drinkers,” and 12.5% completely disagreed that they were likely to find working with people with alcohol problems rewarding. Attitudes to care were significantly influenced by age, personal drinking habits, and beliefs about whether patients can be helped, whether alcoholism is a character defect, and the relationship between alcoholism and social status. Negative attitudes towards patient care persist and are influenced by age, personal drinking habits, and beliefs about alcoholism. Specific training in this area may be beneficial.

Attitudes towards alcohol and alcohol-related problems: Comparison among nurses from different Brazilian health care settings

“…[1] The magnitude of this problem on public health is evidenced by the high prevalence of individuals with problems associated with alcohol use at health care facilities, such as hospital inpatient units, emergency rooms and extra-hospital facilities. [3][4][5] Despite nurses being the professionals with extensive contact with the users of alcohol or other substances in these health care facilities, Crothers and Dorrian [6] demonstrated that these professionals do not have proper training to address the problem, which results in a re-duced ability to work with these patients and, consequently, negative attitudes toward individuals with alcohol-related problems. Therefore, Nehlin and colleagues [7] found that nurses' attitudes toward patients with alcohol-related problems are important, regardless of where they work, to ensure successful strategies to detect and address this problem.…”

“…[8,9] Warren and colleagues, [8] and Kelleher and Cotter [10] in recent studies indicated that nurses' attitudes towards alcohol, alcoholism and alcoholics have been more positive compared to the attitudes assessed in studies [11,12] conducted in the 80s and 90s. In addition, Nehlin and colleagues, [7] Crothers and Dorrian, [6] and Vargas [13] revealed that education and training, personal characteristics and the pattern of alcohol consumption itself are common variables that influence nurses' attitudes towards alcohol and alcoholics. The attitudes of nurses from several health care facilities towards alcohol and alcohol-related problems have been well documented in both the Brazilian and international literature in the past decade.…”

“…The attitudes of nurses from several health care facilities towards alcohol and alcohol-related problems have been well documented in both the Brazilian and international literature in the past decade. [6,8,14] However, although evidence has shown that the workplace influences the attitudes of these professionals toward patients with alcohol-related problems, [15,16] studies comparing possible differences in attitudes of nurses working at different health care service sites are limited.…”

Development and Testing of the Psychometric Properties of Thai Nurses’ Attitudes toward Alcohol-dependent Patients Scale

“…Previous studies about attitude of nurses toward alcohol-dependent patients reports that nurses have varying attitudes. Factors that influence nurses' attitude toward alcohol-dependent patients, whether positive or negative, include symptoms of alcohol problems, pattern of alcohol use, nurses' knowledge, nurses' beliefs about their roles and impact of their intervention on patients' drinking behaviors change [6,7,9].Other personal factors include the nurses' age, their own drinking habits, and belief about whether patients can be helped [18]. Understanding the attitude of nurses towards alcohol-dependent patients is therefore necessary because these patients demonstrate relatively high hospital utilization rates.…”

“…To help patients to continue reduction in alcohol consumption and maintain alcohol abstinence after the withdrawal phase, nurses are expected to provide counseling interventions, psychosocial counseling, and engage patients into self-help groups [16].The results of these nursing practices for alcohol-dependent patients may let nurses fail to engage with patients and may be uncertain whether this is within their scope of nursing practice, or they may perceive a lack of knowledge and skills in identifying and responding to affected patients [16].Furthermore, according to an addiction terminology, it has been found that addiction affects attitudes of professions toward patients [17]. The consequences of nurses' attitudes toward their patients can be identified as follows: quality of care, level of recognition of addiction as a treatable chronic condition, judgments, and stereotyped perceptions [7,18,19]. Previous studies about attitude of nurses toward alcohol-dependent patients reports that nurses have varying attitudes.…”