Attitudes toward mental illness: does a psychiatric nursing course make a difference?

Abstract

The purpose of the study presented in this article is to determine if a psychiatric nursing course is effective in favorably changing nursing students' attitudes toward mental illness. Using an abbreviated form of the Cohen and Struening scale. Opinions About Mental Illness (OMI), data were collected over a 3 year period from 185 sophomore nursing students before entering, and after completing, a psychiatric nursing course. The psychiatric nursing course did make a difference: of the five factors in the scale, four changed significantly. Students became less Authoritarian, less Benevolent, more inclined toward Mental Health Ideology, and less Social Restrictive. These results have implications for nursing education and practice.