Results will be published in the April 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“SBIRT is widely endorsed for identifying and managing unhealthy alcohol use that ranges from hazardous or ‘risky’ drinking to the more serious alcohol abuse and dependence,” explained Lauren M. Broyles, a research health scientist at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, and corresponding author for the study.
“A more recent focus has extended to identification of hazardous drinking – consumption that exceeds guidelines established by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism – as more than 14 standard drinks/week or more than four/occasion for men, and more than seven standard drinks/week or more than three/occasion for women and healthy individuals age 65 or older,” she said. “Despite [supporting] evidence, recommendations and mandates concerning SBIRT implementation, uptake by healthcare providers in real-world clinical settings is still relatively limited.”
“SBIRT is a brief conversation, about 10 to 15 minutes, about hazardous alcohol consumption,” added Deborah S. Finnell, a research nurse scientist at the VA Western New York Healthcare System and associate professor of nursing at the University at Buffalo. “Healthcare team members could easily deliver SBIRT, assuming they are qualified. Since nurses provide 24-hour care in hospitals, nurses are most likely to have contact with patients compared with other healthcare team members, such as physicians and social workers.”
Broyles and her colleagues conducted a cross-sectional survey of 355 (342 males, 13 females) hospitalized medical-surgical patients at a large university-affiliated medical center that is part of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Results indicated acceptability for nurse-delivered SBIRT was high. Patient acceptability for eight out of 10 individual nurse-delivered SBIRT tasks was greater than 84 percent. Roughly 20 percent of the patients reported some degree of personal discomfort with the discussions; in general these individuals had a lower belief in their ability to reduce their drinking risk, were older than 60 years of age, had a positive alcohol screening, and were of non-black race.