The target group included all nursing staff (n=172) in all neurosurgical wards in Finland. Data was collected via a self-completion questionnaire in 2010. The participants were nurses (n=115; response rate 67%) working in the neurosurgical wards of all five Finnish university hospitals. The data were statistically analysed using SPSS version 19. Descriptive statistics, the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, one-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, MANOVA and linear regression were used.