Using SAS® to examine the relationship between nursing attitudes towards suicidal patients in the Emergency Department (ED)

Mental illness visits in Emergency Department (ED) are annually 12 million in United States. There is need to prepare staff with mental issues. The purpose of this paper is using SAS® to examine the impact of an educational initiative on nurses’ attitudes about patients expressing suicidal ideation in the emergency departments 2 rural hospitals. Two rural communities ED were used for this study. Deliberate SelfHarm Questionnaire (ADSHQ) used to assess attitudes included confidence, empathy, dealing effectively, and coping. The outcomes were attitude of nurses towards suicidal patients were measured at baseline and after intervention. The intervention for this study required that specialized training be provided to nursing staff working. Aggregated data was collected from health stream when the study was completed. Each Item was analyzed and reported in a percentage or rate per item. Proc Mean, Freq, ttest, and univariate used to analyze this data. T-Test and Wilcoxon signed ranked test used to examine the difference of means for attitude of nurse pre and post of intervention. The results showed there was improvement in attitude nurses towards suicidal patients after intervention. However, the results were not statistically significant.