Empathy and attitudes about substance abuse among social work students, clinical social workers, & nurses

ABSTRACT

Empathy is a critical component of social work practice, yet research has indicated that health professionals often express negative attitudes toward people who abuse substances. The current study examines levels of empathy and attitudes of social work students, clinical social workers and practicing nurses. Rates of empathy were lower than expected. The findings suggest that using tools such as SBIRT may be beneficial in terms of contributing to job satisfaction and well-being of nurses and social workers in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• Attitudes
• empathy
• nurses
• SBIRT
• social work
• substance abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Partially funded by SAMHSA Grant Number:5H79TI025943-03, (Lawrence, PI).