The effect of nursing education and experience on attitudes to diabetes

The diabetes-related attitudes of 629 nurses working in South Australian hospitals were identified in a study using a questionnaire that included the revised Diabetes Attitudes Scale. Overall, the nurses' attitudes were appropriate; some were found to be related to levels of nursing education and others to nursing experience. There were significant differences between some attitudes held by nurses and previously reported attitudes of pre-registration nursing students. This study indicates that formal nursing education affects nurses' attitudes to diabetes and implications of the findings for inservice diabetes programs are discussed.