A Study of Attitudes of the Hospitalized Alcoholic-Tuberculous, the Non-Alcoholic-Tuberculous, and the Nurse

Summary and Conclusions This study of the differences in attitudes on alcoholism and its treatment between alcoholic-tuberculous patients, other tuberculous patients, and registered nurses, found that: 1) the nurses had the most favorable attitudes and the alcoholic patients the least favorable attitudes; 2) the patients tended to see their nurses as having much less favorable attitudes than the nurses actually had on alcoholism and its treatment; 3) the perception of the nurses attitudes by alcoholic patients was less accurate than by the non-alcoholic patients; and 4) the alcoholic patient tended to see the nurse as having a less favorable attitude than himself whereas the non-alcoholic patient saw the nurses as having about the same attitude as himself. The less favorable attitude of the alcoholic patients together with their poorer perception of nurses' attitudes, may be interpreted as being due to poor communication between nurses and alcoholic patients. This prevented accurate assessment of the nurses' attitudes and allowed the projection of the alcoholic's own feelings about himself to the nurses. One implication for the management of alcoholic-tuberculous patients in the hospital environment is that favorable changes in the nurses' attitudes toward treatment of alcoholism and toward the alcoholic may not be sufficient since these attitudes are not automatically communicated to the patient. The alcoholic patient must be convinced that his nurse is “for him” rather than “against him.”