Working with alcoholic patients: satisfaction of nurses at a general hospital

Abstract

It is about a psychometric study involving 171 nurses at a general hospital in the inland of São Paulo state, Brazil, and aimed at verifying these professionals’ satisfaction upon working with alcoholics. The results have indicated the nurses’ feelings of confusion and discomfort upon working with people who have alcohol problems. 70% of the studied subjects have indicated that they do not work well with alcoholic patients, 80% prefer not working with them and 60% face difficulties to talk about the problem with their patients. The authors suggest in site training as a strategy to better face this issue.