Introduction:

In the last few years, we have seen an increase in the number of suicides in our country, with 4003 suicides in the last year (the highest number since a data record was made), which also represents the 1ª cause of external death. It is also known that 77% of the people that commit suicide has been contact with a primary care professional in the previous year, and a 45% the previous month to the suicide.

Methods:

Through a self-administered Google form, an attempt was made to collect information about knowledge of suicidal behavior and ideation, risk factors, and actions taken when faced with this situation in Primary Care by Nursing and Medicine professionals.

Results:

Through the self-administered survey, it was concluded that almost all participants agree on the relevance of the increase in the number of suicides in 2022 in Spain. A 67.6% affirm that they sometimes had some close experience with patients with suicidal behavior during their years of work. Of the people who claim to have some previous experience, 63.8% say it was in the last year. More than 50% of the sample claims to have little or no knowledge about suicidal risk behaviour, its detection and approach from Primary Care. Furthermore, more than 78.9% indicate that they have not received training on the prevention of suicidal ideation, considering that specific preparation is necessary for the appropriate approach to the prevention and care of suicide risk.

Conclusions:

Through this study, the need for further training of Primary Care professionals in the Canary Islands is seen to be feasible, to carry out a correct approach to the suicidal patient, through research and training of the professionals in this area.

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