THE EFFECT OF AN ALCOHOLISM EDUCATION PROGRAM ON STUDENT NURSES' ATTITUDES TOWARD ALCOHOLISM.
Contributors: St. John's University (New York, N.Y.)
Published: 1985
Number of pages: 205
Subjects: Education, Health.; Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: A study was conducted to investigate the effect of an alcoholism education program on senior nursing students' attitudes toward alcoholism. The instruments used were the Marcus Alcoholism Questionnaire (Marcus, 1963), the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale (Rokeach, 1960), and a self report Alcohol Use Questionnaire.

There were two groups of subjects in this study; an experimental group of 34 female senior nursing students who participated in an alcoholism education program and a control group of 30 female senior nursing students who did not participate in the educational program until after their posttest scores on the Marcus Alcoholism Questionnaire (MAQ) were obtained. The alcoholism education program consisted of a two hour informational lecture about alcoholism and a 24 hour clinical practicum, which took place over a two week period in an alcohol detoxification-rehabilitation treatment center.

The experimental group subjects were found to have more positive, accepting and non-judgmental attitudes toward alcoholism than the control group subjects. In addition, the experimental group subjects expressed more positive attitudes toward alcoholism at posttesting than they did at pretesting. Thus, it was concluded that for the subjects in this study, participation in an alcoholism education program affected attitudes toward alcoholism. The overall effect was a change in attitude to more positive attitudes toward alcoholism.

Correlational analyses used to test the second study question indicated that there was a tendency for subjects with higher grade point averages to express more positive attitudes toward alcoholism on four factors of the MAQ. In addition, the more dogmatic subjects tended to have more negative attitudes towards alcoholism on one factor of the MAQ. Finally, the subjects classified as relatively heavy drinkers expressed more positive attitudes toward alcoholism on two factors of the MAQ.

One additional study finding of interest was the subjects' responses to a self report questionnaire on alcohol use. As a result of their responses, 39.5% of the subjects were categorized as heavy users of alcohol, 48.5% as moderate users of alcohol, and 15.6% as abstainers. This finding suggests that an area for future study is increasing the awareness of nursing students of their potential for alcohol abuse. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.).
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-12, Section: A, page: 3610.

Thesis (ED.D.)--ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY (NEW YORK), 1985.

School code: 0192.