Nurses’ personal knowledge and their attitudes toward alcoholism issues: A study of a sample of specialized services in Brazil

Abstract

Background: Changes to more positive attitudes and the development of skills to enable work with alcohol- and alcoholism-related issues were associated with knowledge in the area). The aim of this report is to investigate the relationship between nurses’ and nursing assistants’ attitudes toward alcohol and alcoholism and their knowledge of alcohol and alcoholism issues.

Methods: The Scale of Attitudes toward alcohol, alcoholism and alcoholics and a knowledge questionnaire were completed using a convenience sample of nurses and nursing assistants (N = 75) working in eight clinics specializing in the treatment of alcohol and other drug problems in São Paulo City, Brazil.

Results: A positive correlation was found between the number of correct answers on the knowledge questionnaire and positive attitudes of the participants. The age of the participants (p = .028), specific preparation in alcohol and other drugs during nursing education (p = .019) and knowledge assessed using the Knowledge questionnaire (p =.016) were significantly correlated with positive attitudes. Personal working category (nurse/nurse assistants; p = .007) significantly influenced the mean knowledge level.

Conclusion: These results indicate that nurses show more positive attitudes toward alcohol and alcoholism problems than nurse assistants and that their score on the knowledge questionnaire was on average 1.456 points higher than that of nurse assistants, suggesting a relation between higher knowledge levels and positive attitudes.