A Cross-Sectional Study of Attitude towards Psychiatry among Undergraduate Nursing Students

Background: The shortage of mental health nurses is attributed to negative attitudes of nursing students towards mental illness. Attitudes toward psychiatry have been studied more among medical students worldwide while only few studies were done on nursing students. Aims: To know the undergraduate nursing student’s attitude towards psychiatry and compare the attitude among students with or without exposure to psychiatry clinical postings. Methods: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study conducted at nursing college, Karnataka. Undergraduate nursing students belonging to all phases and consenting for the study were the participants. They were considered into two groups, students with or without exposure to psychiatry clinical posting respectively. Apart from collecting sociodemographic details, a self-administered Attitude towards Psychiatry‑30 items questionnaire was used, and the Chi-square test was used for statistical analyses. Result: The total number of consenting participants was 238. Among them 120(50.4%) were undergraduate nursing students who had not attended psychiatry clinical postings and 118(49.57%) had attended psychiatry clinical postings. The mean age of the students attending and not attending psychiatry clinical postings was 20.93 years and 18.58 years respectively. Before clinical exposure students were interested in causes of mental illness and in psychotherapy. But after postings they showed interest in diagnosing and in treatment of patients by pharmacotherapy. They also believed Psychiatric teaching increases our understanding of medical and surgical patients and it should be included in curriculum. Conclusion: Clinical exposure in psychiatry improves their positive attitude. The choice of career depends on multiple factors not only on a positive attitude towards psychiatry. Stigmatizing attitudes of nursing professionals are major problem with detrimental consequences for people experiencing psychiatric illness. The present psychiatry curriculum can be improved to nurture the development of empathetic attitudes towards people with psychiatric illness.