Nurses” attitudes towards geriatric behavior problems in long-term care settings

We examined the attitudes of 101 geriatric nurses toward behavior problems in 5 long-term care facilities. The survey consisted of two sections. Section 1 assessed nurses” attitudes about the significance and treatment of behavior problems, and their cur­rent abilities in managing these problems. In section 2, nurses were asked to rate 22 behavior problems in terms of their frequencies of occurrence in Iheir facility. Results indicate that nurses consider be­havior problems to be of great significance, although they were un­certain whether their training had adequately prepared them to man­age these problems. Nurses were also uncertain about the efficacy of psychotropic medications in managing behavior problems, but were more agreeable with the statement that behavioral procedures could be used effectively to manage these problems. Twenty of the 22 behavior problems were reported to occur at least occasionally, with 6 problems occurring frequently to all-the-time and 9 problems oc­curring at the high end of occasionally to frequently. Comparisons of RN/LPN responses were examined, and implications of the results for geriatric nurses” training were discussed.