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Emergency Physicians and Nurses Attitudes towards Alcohol-Intoxicated Patients
The Journal of Emergency Medicine, 04/26/2012
Warren OU et al. – Emergency physicians and nurses have similar attitudes but significant differences in the extent of these attitudes towards the care of the alcohol–intoxicated patient.
Methods- This single-site survey study evaluated emergency physicians' and nurses':
- Attitudes of personal professional satisfaction and dissatisfaction when caring for intoxicated patients
- Attitudes towards the difficulty in caring for alcohol-intoxicated patients
- Attitudes towards respect of the alcohol-intoxicated patient
- Attitudes towards the adequacy of training in caring for intoxicated patients
- Attitudes towards rehabilitation and counseling of alcohol-intoxicated patients
- Physicians were less satisfied and more dissatisfied than nurses when caring for alcohol-intoxicated patients.
- Physicians found treating alcohol-intoxicated patients more difficult than nurses did.
- Physicians were more likely to agree that alcohol-intoxicated patients should be treated with respect.
- Physicians felt more adequately trained than nurses in caring for alcohol-intoxicated patients.
- Nurses were more likely to believe that alcohol-related rehabilitation is ineffective compared with physicians.
- Both nurses and physicians refer alcohol-intoxicated patients to rehabilitation to a similar extent.
