THE EDUCATIONAL IMPACT OF A COURSE ABOUT ADDICTION ON NURSING STUDENTS' PERSONAL ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIOR (TEACHING STRATEGIES, PRIMARY PREVENTION, EVALUATION).
Contributors: University of Pittsburgh.
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 184
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of an elective nursing course about addiction on baccalaureate nursing students' attitudes toward addictive substances and on their personal lifestyle behaviors. The course was a three credit, 15-week offering, focusing on learning to care for addicted clients and on learning to value responsible attitudes and behaviors related to addiction, as a strategy for primary prevention of addiction in the nursing profession.

A non-random treatment group enrolled in the course was compared with a control group who did not take the course. Data were collected at the beginning and end of the term using Goodstadt's Drug Attitudes Scale and the Healthstyle Inventory. Students in the treatment group made significantly greater changes than the control group on the tobacco subscale and the opiates subscale of the Drug Attitudes Scale, moving in the direction of more strongly held anti-drug attitudes. The students in the treatment group did not change significantly more than the control group on the Healthstyle Inventory, but both groups significantly decreased in ability to manage stress at the end of the term. In addition, a subgroup of students in the treatment group who indicated a family background of drug or alcohol abuse reported significantly different attitudes on both instruments when compared with a subgroup of students whose families did not use drugs or alcohol.

Students in the treatment group evaluated the course positively, identifying several teaching strategies as most influential. Those strategies were provision of guest speakers with real-life experience either with addiction or with treatment of addiction, and provision of a comfortable and safe classroom environment where discussion of personal values and experiences could take place. Students indicated intentions to work at developing a more healthy lifestyle.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-06, Section: B, page: 1869.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH, 1985.

School code: 0178.