Attributions for illness and treatment interventions by community nurses

The present study evaluated community nurses' attributions for a case patient's heart attack and their recommendations for treatment. Eighty-nine district nurses and health visitors completed a set of rating scales following a case vignette describing a patient who had suffered a heart attack and prior to which had either adopted a healthy lifestyle (n = 47) or had maintained unhealthy behaviours (n = 42). The results suggest that subjects in the unhealthy-behaviour condition rated the case patient as less likely to follow advice, more responsible for his/her condition and rated the heart attack as more preventable. In addition, the results suggest that subjects were more likely to offer recommendations for behavioural change to the unhealthy case patient and that these recommendations were significantly related to internal attributions of patient responsibility. The results are discussed in terms of theories of health professionals' beliefs and behaviours.