Can Completing a Mental Health Nursing Course Change Students' Attitudes?

Abstract

Nursing program graduates rarely choose mental health nursing as a career. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine attitudes of 310 nursing students towards persons with mental illness. Students completed surveys on the first and last days of their program's psychiatric mental health nursing course. The pre- and post-test survey analysis indicated that students improved their attitude, knowledge and preparedness to care for persons with mental illness. However, students maintained little interest in working as a mental health nurse. Modifications in mental health nursing courses could be made to improve students' interest in choosing a career in mental health nursing.

Undergraduate students' perspectives on pursuing a career in mental health nursing following practicum experience

“…Study findings contribute nuance and depth to the current literature on students ' attitudes towards mental health nursing, which consistently demonstrates that students are disinterested in pursuing this area of nursing in their careers (Happell & Gaskin, ; Hastings et al, ; Hoekstra et al, ; Stevens et al, ). While the literature frequently positions students ' negative attitudes towards mental health nursing as a “lack of interest,” this study illuminates the importance of understanding how the context of the institutionalised mental health environment shapes students ' reflections on their future careers.…”

“…This finding challenges the dominant perspective in the literature that nursing students are not interested in a career in mental health nursing due to disinterest in working with the patient population because of stigma or fear of violence (e.g. Happell et al, ; Hastings et al, ). Additionally, this narrative offers a counterpoint to the literature suggesting that students are not prepared to work with individuals with mental health challenges following their practicums (Hunter et al, ; Walsh, ).…”

“…Further, research highlights that students often do not feel that they have received adequate preparation for practice, with implications for their confidence in gaining the knowledge and skills necessary to provide competent mental health care (Henderson, Happell, & Martin, ). In the context of these challenges, research has consistently demonstrated that mental health nursing is the least desirable career path for graduating nurses (Happell & Gaskin, ; Hastings, Kroposki, & Williams, ; Stevens, Browne, & Graham, ). This is concerning not only from a mental health workforce perspective, but also for the provision of competent nursing care in mental healthcare settings and across all healthcare settings where individuals with mental health challenges will be encountered.…”

The Spanish version of the Psychiatric/Mental health clinical placement survey and an assessment of Spanish student attitudes towards mental health

“…The subscales requiring appropriate consideration and modification are as follows: knowledge of mental illness (KMI), anxiety surrounding mental illness (ASMI), negative stereotypes (NS) and beliefs on valuable nursing contributions to mental health (VC). Previous studies reported inadequate results for each subscale (Hastings et al, ; Hayman‐White & Happell, ). A study by Thongpriwan et al (), which adapted the scale to the U.S.A., is noteworthy in that it revealed adequate results for internal consistency for all subscales, except KMI and FC.…”

“…A study by Ewalds‐Kvist, Högbert, and Lützén () shows how students who had contact with real patients harboured more positive attitudes than those who had never faced real‐life clinical contexts. According to a range of authors, it has been demonstrated that clinical experience has a positive influence on the attitudes of nursing students towards patients with mental illness (Abuhammad, Hatamleh, Howard, & Ahmad, ; Happell, , Happell & Gough, ; Happell & Gaskin, ; Happell & Gough, ; Hastings et al, ).…”