Nursing Students Perception of the Stigma of Mental Illness

NURSING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE STIGMA OF MENTAL ILLNESS

Abir K Bekhet, RN, PhD, H.S.M.I., Marquette University College of Nursing, Milwaukee, WI, phone:414-288-3847; Carolyn J. Murrock, PhD, RN, University of Akron School of Nursing, 209 Carroll Street Akron, Ohio, phone: 330-472-9341, email: [email protected]; Harpreet Singh-Gill, MSN, APNP, FNP-BC, RN, Froedtert& Medical College of Wisconsin, Phone: 262-532-3326, E-mail: [email protected] and; Qiyan Mu, RN, doctoral Nursing Student and research assistant, E-mail: [email protected]

Background and Significance Mental health disorders are highly prevalent in the United States. One of the most cited barriers for seeking treatment is the stigma against mental health disorders. Stigma can have a negative impact on the illness experience and can lead to poorer outcomes. Nursing students’ perception regarding the stigma of mental illness will impact the quality of care delivered and will impact the patients’ outcomes.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to understand the nursing students’ perception of the stigma of mental illness, its causes, and their perception of the interventions that can be implemented to break the destructive cycle of the stigma. The current research will address the following questions from nursing students’ perspectives: 1) Why do you think people with mental illness are stigmatized? 2) You personally, what do you think about mental illness? 3) Among your family and friends: a) Do you have any who are affected by mental illness? b) Do they have difficult times dealing with people? 4) Can mental illness be managed? How? 5) How can we break the destructive cycle of stigma?

Conceptual Framework The social psychology model which proposes that stigma has three components of stereotypes (cognitive), prejudice (emotional), and discrimination (behavioral), will provide the theoretical framework for the study.

Description of Sample Data were collected from 64 sophomore nursing students.

Setting College of nursing at a mid-size university in the Midwest

Methods/procedure The above mentioned 5 open ended questions were distributed to the students during the first class. Students were asked to complete the sheet anonymously and to bring it to the next class. All the surveys were collected by a volunteer student and were placed in the instructor’s mailbox in a sealed envelope.

Results Content analysis will be used to study the categories across students’ responses. The credibility of the data will be enhanced by independent coding of the data by the four researchers. To ensure the trustworthiness of findings, the four researchers will meet and compare the interpretations of the categories/subcategories until they reached consensus on the categories and subcategories as an iterative process.

Conclusions and Implications The results of this study will inform the future development of nursing interventions to address the stigma of mental illness.