Nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards patients with alcohol use disorders at baringo teaching and referral hospital

Abstract

Introduction: the harmful alcohol use can result into alcohol use disorder and alcohol dependence. Alcohol-related morbidity and mortality remain to be high at the hospitals. Nurses are a key resource in management and screening of patients with alcohol use disorder. Studies have found mixed finding on nurses’ knowledge and attitude on alcohol use. Disorders.However, there is scarcity of research on this topic in baringo county, kenya. Aim: the aim of this study was to determine the nurses’ knowledge and attitude on patients with alcohol use disorders at baringo teaching and referral hospital. Methodology: this was a descriptive cross-sectional study which was done among nurses who were station of work was at inpatient and outpatient departments of the baringo county referral hospital. Convenience sampling was used to enroll the study participants. The researcher developed a sociodemographic questionnaire. The attitude of the nurses was assessed using the shortened alcohol and alcohol problems questionnaire while the nurses’ knowledge was assessed using the knowledge of psychiatric aspects of alcohol use disorder questionnaire. The sample size was 77 nurses. The inferential and descriptive statistics was analysed using spss version 22.0. The results were presented in form of charts, tables narratives and graphs. Results the sample size was 77. The nurses’ knowledge was poor since the overall mean score was at 45.7 on the kpaaq.The nurses only had a positive attitude towards motivation, role legitimacy and role security since their mean score were 11.3,11.3 and 22 .6 respectively on the sppaq. Females had significantly higher knowledge in comparison to to males (p<0.001). Those with 6-10 years of experience had significantly higher knowledge in comparison to those with 11-20 and 0-5 years of experience (p=0.008).No statistical difference was found while comparing attitude to sociodemographic characteristics.