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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Mar 3.
Published in final edited form as: Depress Anxiety. 2013 Mar 14;30(10):1013–1020. doi: 10.1002/da.22075

Table 2.

Self-reported provider beliefs concerning lethal means restriction for suicide prevention, by provider type (n=631)

Nurse Physician Total
n % n % n %

What proportion of suicides do you consider preventable?
  All/most 128 42 148 46 276 44
  Some/few 170 56 169 52 339 54
  None 6 2.0 7 2.2 13 2.1

Each month in the U.S., over 1,000 people die by suicide using firearms. Had a firearm not been accessible to them, how many do you think would have found another way to die by suicide***
  Few 4 1.3 14 4.3 18 2.9
  Some 92 30 165 51 257 41
  Most 165 54 124 38 289 46
  All 40 13 18 5.5 58 9.2

Whose responsibility do you think it is to assess a patient’s access to firearms and other lethal means to commit suicide?
  ED nurse 175 57 186 57 361 57
  ED physician** 199 65 249 77 448 71
  Psychiatric nurse* 218 71 206 63 424 67
  Psychiatrist 257 84 270 83 527 84
    Social Worker/Mental health counselor** 229 75 215 66 437 69
  Other* 41 13 23 7.1 69 11

Whose responsibility do you think it is to counsel patients and their families to limit access to firearms and other lethal means to commit suicide?
  ED nurse* 175 51 130 40 285 45
  ED physician 183 60 201 62 384 61
  Psychiatric nurse** 223 73 200 62 423 67
  Psychiatrist 267 87 276 85 543 86
  Social Worker/Mental health counselor** 235 77 214 66 449 71
  Other 37 12 33 10 70 11

How often do you personally counsel patients or their families to remove or lock up any guns at home?***
  Almost always 16 5.2 23 7.1 39 6.2
  Often 17 5.6 48 15 65 10
  Sometimes 51 17 95 29 146 23
  Hardly ever 220 72 158 49 378 60

Legend.

Abbreviation: CI, Confidence Interval.

*

P<0.05,

**

P<0.01,

***

P<0.001 under Chi Square.

Numbers may not add to total or 100% because of missing data (not shown if <5%)