In-service drug and alcohol education for generalist nurses: are they interested?

Alcohol education and training in pre-registration nursing: a national survey to determine curriculum content in the United Kingdom (UK)

BACKGROUND

Alcohol-related harm impacts significantly on the health of the population. Nurses are often among the first health professionals that many patients with alcohol-related problems come into contact with and have been identified as playing a key role but may be ill-prepared to respond. Future nurses need to have the skills, knowledge and clinical confidence to respond to patients suffering from alcohol-related harm. A pre-registration curriculum that ensures a nursing workforce fit for practice in responding to alcohol-related harm is necessary.

OBJECTIVES

To determine the level of alcohol education and training content in the pre-registration curriculum for nursing in the United Kingdom (UK). To establish whether there are variations in the pre-registration curriculum content across the UK.

DESIGN

A descriptive study.

SETTING

All 68 UK Higher Education Institutions offering a total of 111 pre-registration courses for nurses were invited to participate in the study.

PARTICIPANTS

Twenty nine completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 26%. The largest number of identified responders were from England (n=15), with 3 from Scotland and 1 each from Wales and Northern Ireland. Nine Universities chose not to identify themselves.

METHODS

An online semi-structured questionnaire survey was used to collect the study data.

RESULTS

Teaching of alcohol and alcohol related harm was mainly delivered during the second year of a pre-registration nursing programme provided mainly to adult and mental health students. Overall, the majority of alcohol related content that is provided within the responding pre-registration nursing courses relates to biophysiology, aetiology, and pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the need for a greater and more relevant focus of alcohol education to pre-registration nursing students of all fields of practice incorporating an integrated approach across all years of study.

A study exploring drug use and management of patients presenting to an inner city emergency department

Patients who present to an emergency department (ED) with a problem related to illegal drug use can be difficult to identify and are perceived to generate a significant workload for staff. This study suggests that illicit drug use may be more common than previously reported and also that the impact on the ED is perceived by staff to be disproportionately high compared with the actual numbers of patients presenting with complaints related to illicit drug use. We conclude that the over estimation by staff is directly related to the challenges that staff working within the ED setting believe this group of patients pose.

Negative attitudes towards clients with drug and alcohol related problems: finding the elusive solution

The difficulties experienced by nurses in providing care to clients with drug and alcohol related problems within general hospital settings have been clearly identified in the literature. Despite this, the problem continues with little or no evidence of improvement. This paper reports the results of a research project undertaken in a large private hospital in metropolitan Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The study sought to ascertain whether a difference in attitudes, confidence and perceived knowledge related to the care of clients with drug and alcohol problems would be evident between those nurses who used consultation and liaison services from a specialist drug and alcohol unit and those who did not. A questionnaire was administered to 200 nurses, with a 53% completion rate (n = 106). The results showed very little difference between the groups with the exception of the perceived knowledge category which indicated a statistically significant difference.