Nurses' beliefs about the etiology and treatment of alcohol abuse: a national study

The purpose of this study was to determine registered nurses' beliefs about alcoholism and alcoholics and to compare those beliefs with subjects' biographic and professional variables. A randomly selected national sample of 1026 registered nurses who are members of the American Nurses Association responded to a mailed survey that was designed to determine beliefs about the etiology and preferred treatment of alcohol abusers. Results showed that subjects had more positive beliefs toward alcohol abusers than was found in previous studies. In comparing nurses' beliefs with biographic and professional characteristics, it was found that those who had received their nursing education in hospital diploma programs and those with master's degrees had more positive beliefs about alcoholism than either baccalaureate prepared nurses or nurses with doctoral degrees. Female nurses more often expressed positive beliefs than did male nurses, and nurses working in rural hospitals were more positive than those in urban institutions. Age, length of time in nursing, clinical specialty, type of position, and size and type of institution, were unrelated to beliefs.