Primary care nurse attitudes, beliefs and confidence levels regarding alcohol abuse and its treatment: Impact of educational intervention

Alcohol abuse has been a major burden on the society. In the fight against it, a key issue of the education of the primary care nurses has been ignored. This study evaluates the effect of an education program on the attitudes, beliefs, and confidence levels of primary care nurses regarding alcohol abuse and its treatment. Data from the Project Mainstream educational intervention were used with permission from the investigators. Two hundred one students and faculty of nursing at Vanderbilt University participated in the intervention, which was designed to train primary care providers in the Brief Negotiated Intervention technique for early detection and treatment of alcohol problems. Participants completed questionnaires before and after the educational intervention. Analysis of the data using paired samples t-test and one way analysis of variance showed statistically significant positive change in the nurses' attitudes, beliefs, and confidence levels regarding alcohol abuse and its treatment after the educational intervention. This study has shown the importance of educational intervention in dealing with alcohol abuse.