Student nurses' attitudes to illicit drugs: a grounded theory study

The aim of this research was to identify the factors that influence the attitudes of student nurses towards illicit drugs. This insight is important in providing a foundation for the development of educational approaches aimed at challenging what appear to be negative attitudes to illicit drug users within nursing. The absence of a testable hypothesis prior to the investigation led to the generation of theory from the data (inductive enquiry) with a constructivist approach to grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006), being employed. Data generation involved informal conversational interviews (n=12), semi-structured interviews (n=9), four focus groups and an audit of the education received by students (n=61) around substance misuse issues. The final grounded theory indicated that: Student nurses enter training with a wide range of personal experiences relating to illicit drug use. The influences of society's negative views and the image of drug use presented in the press appeared to be significant factors in developing their attitudes on the subject. In the absence of effective approaches to education, and given that many professionals in the practice environment appear to view illicit substance users in a negative way, it is likely that interventions with identified drug users will be influenced by negative attitudes.