Fishman, Sarah

This study explored the attitudes of emergency department nurses toward the care of the attempted suicide patient. The independent variables were the ages of nurses and their length of work experience in the emergency department. One-hundred and one surveys were collected from emergency department nurses employed in three Broward County hospitals. In general, there were no significant differences between the two study groups; however, variances did appear in several areas relating to knowledge about attempted suicide. The less experienced group and the younger group rated lower on these items. The nurses responding to this survey expressed generally favorable attitudes toward the care of the attempted suicide patient.

The present study is a replication of a study concerning physicians' attitudes toward advance directives originally studied in 1989. A cross-sectional design was employed to assess whether physicians' attitudes toward advance directives had changed substantially since the passing of the Patient Self-Determination Act in 1990. The sample was obtained by mailing questionnaires to 400 physicians on the East central coast of Florida, chosen according to specialty and presumed interaction with advance directives. Questions included demographics information about participants, usage and discussion of advance directives by physicians, and potential barriers to physician-initiated discussions. Results correlated with the original authors'. There were positive associations between attitude and year of graduation, gender, type of practice, size of town physician practiced in, and religion with chi-square testing. Overall results indicated a positive attitude, and a desire for patient autonomy.