Attitudes of nursing students towards substance users and perceptions about religious/spiritual care

ABSTRACT Objective: To evaluate the impact of an educational intervention on the attitudes of Nursing students towards users of psychoactive substances (excluding alcohol and tobacco) and their perceptions about the religious and spiritual care offered within the health services. Method: Quasi-experimental study. We applied a questionnaire before and one month after an intervention about the comprehensive care of substance users, containing: sociodemographic information, knowledge, the Treatment Spirituality/Religiosity Scale, and the Drug and Drug Problems Perceptions Questionnaire. For the analyses, we employed the paired Student’s t-test and Pearson’s Coefficient. Results: 62 students participated in this study. After the intervention, there was improvement in the students’ attitudes towards the substance users, but not regarding the perception they already had about the importance of offering religious and spiritual care within the services. Conclusion: We verified the effectiveness of the educational intervention on the improvement of attitudes concerning the care of substance users, yet we point out that the students did not show changes in their perception about the inclusion of the religious and spiritual aspects in the care dedicated to this population.