The Australian journal of advanced nursing : a quarterly publication of the Royal Australian Nursing Federation
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The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes of critical care nurses and doctors to parasuicide patients. A survey was conducted of 299 nurses and 81 doctors working in emergency departments and intensive care units of nine Victorian hospitals. Data obtained from responses to a Likert-type questionnaire were assessed in order to explore relationships between the doctors' and nurses' attitudes and demographic and other variables. ⋯ Nurses were also significantly more likely than doctors to self report that they were afraid of saying the wrong thing to these patients. Eighty three percent of nurses and 61% of doctors stated that they would benefit from suicide related education. Addressing this expressed need must be a high a priority for critical care units if parasuicide patients are to receive more individual and appropriate care and if their carers are to experience greater work satisfaction.