Stigma towards People with Mental Illness among Portuguese Nursing Students

Abstract

Stigma is a substantial obstacle when caring for people with mental illness. Nursing students’ negative attitudes towards people with mental illness may impact the quality of care delivered and consequentially patient outcomes. In this study, we assessed the stigmatising attitudes and beliefs of nursing students towards people with mental illness and examined its relationship with several psycho-socio-demographic variables. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive correlational study, which was developed with a non-probabilistic convenience sample of 110 nursing students. Stigmatising attitudes and beliefs were assessed using the Portuguese version of the Attribution Questionnaire AQ-27. Results show that the dimensions of stigma with higher scores were help, pity, coercion and avoidance. However, significant differences were only observed depending on the year of study (fourth-year students, who already had clinical placements in this area, are less likely to show stigma), the relationship (family is less prone to show coercion), the history of mental health treatment (students with a history of mental health treatment have more tendency to help) and whether they considered working in the mental health field (students who have considered working in this field are less prone to show anger, avoidance and think of patients as dangerous). Therefore, we conclude that education in a classroom setting alone is not enough to reduce stigma in nursing students, clinical placement in the area is required to achieve such results. It is thus essential to improve nursing curricula worldwide so that students are exposed to both psychiatric nursing theory and clinical practice in the first years of the nursing degree.

Translation of the mental health literacy questionnaire for young adults into Chichewa for use in Malawi: preliminary validation and reliability results

“…For factor 2, the three items low loading may be highlighting complexity around country speci c and cultural differences in mental health beliefs and stereotypes [21]. Speci cally, that there are differences in sources of prejudice and beliefs around aetiology or causes of mental illness between young adults in rural Malawi [20] and Portugal [22,23] This may have affected the variability in the data and may explain the scattered results seen in the exploratory factor analysis. Indeed, focus group participants from our exploratory work on the MHLq's cultural relevance also questioned the high category scoring, particularly from the 'knowledge' subscale items.…”

The factors and outcomes of stigma toward mental disorders among medical and nursing students: a cross-sectional study

“…Previous studies have explored the factors of stigma in order to improve stigma toward mental disorders in medical and nursing students. A study pointed out that fourth-year nursing students, who already had a clinical internship in the department of psychiatry, were less likely to show stigma than other nursing students [ 21 ]. A study found that women showed less stigmatization than men among medical students [ 22 ].…”

Perspectives of Nursing Students towards Schizophrenia Stigma: A Qualitative Study Protocol

“…Thus, exploring the perspectives towards people with schizophrenia among nursing students, as future nurses, will be invaluable in designing anti-stigma interventions for these students and ultimately improving the conditions of people with schizophrenia. Many quantitative studies have investigated nursing students’ knowledge of mental illness and/or their stigmatised attitudes and/or intentional behaviours towards people with mental illness [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Mental illness stigma is influenced by multiple factors [ 44 ], especially cultural factors [ 45 ].…”