Nurses to lead frontline campaign to cut alcohol related injuries in Wales
The ‘Have a Word’ campaign will train nurses in Wales to screen patients for alcohol misuse and deliver brief interventions for those patients identified as drinking at hazardous levels. A brief intervention is a structured conversation between the patient and the nurse, designed to motivate the patient to change their drinking behaviour. This evidence-based initiative establishes screening and brief interventions as a routine part of nursing practice in all maxillofacial and trauma clinics in Wales.
The campaign, launched in January 2013, uses a 20-second waiting room-based screening technique in which nurses will be able to identify patients who drink excessively. Based on trials conducted by the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University in which nurses who remove stitches following alcohol-related injuries were encouraged to have short, structured conversations with their patients to try to find out if they have alcohol problems. The trial produced significant long-term reductions in drinking for one-in-four people who previously consumed alcohol at hazardous levels.
Website: Public Health Wales nurses to lead frontline campaign to cut alcohol related injuries