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Substance abuse education for clinical nurses: a controlled study
A V Graham1, K Christy, S Emmitt-Myers
1Department of Family Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106-5036, USA.
Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing
|December 31, 1997
Summary
A substance abuse educational intervention significantly improved nurses' knowledge and competence in caring for chemically dependent patients. This highlights the need for continuing education to meet practice standards.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Education
- Substance Abuse Treatment
- Clinical Competence
Background:
- Nurses often have educational deficiencies in substance abuse care.
- Promotion to Advanced Clinical Nurse requires enhanced skills.
- A specific educational intervention was developed for this purpose.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a substance abuse educational intervention for nurses.
- To compare knowledge and competence gains between an intervention group and a control group.
- To assess the impact of specialized education on nurses' ability to care for chemically dependent patients.
Main Methods:
- A quasi-experimental design was used with 88 nurses.
- The intervention group received a promotion workshop with a substance abuse component.
- The control group received the promotion workshop without the substance abuse component.
Main Results:
- Nurses in the intervention group demonstrated significantly greater increases in knowledge.
- The intervention group also showed enhanced feelings of competence in managing substance abuse cases.
- The educational intervention positively impacted key learning outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Continuing education on substance abuse is crucial for hospital nurses.
- Such education addresses knowledge gaps and meets nurses' information needs.
- Implementing substance abuse education helps nurses adhere to professional practice standards, such as those from the American Nurses Association (ANA).