Masters Thesis

Stigma and Attitudes of Mental Illness Among Accelerated Bachelors of Science Nursing Students

Stigma of mental illness is an ongoing issue in the community and healthcare that affects the mentally ill and their families. Nurses are treating people with mental illness in their practice in various settings. As nursing students are being introduced to the nursing profession, it is important have a clear conceptualization of mental illness. Stigma and attitudes about mental illness can be detrimental to a patient’s recovery. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the attitudes and stigma of accelerated BSN students prior to and completion of a theory and clinical psychiatric mental health-nursing course. This study explored how exposure and education and clinical experience in psychiatric mental health nursing can effect change in attitudes of accelerated undergraduate nursing students about people with a mental illness. The research question was “Is there a positive difference between perceptions of stigma and attitudes of mental illness prior to and following completion of psychiatric mental health theory and clinical course?” A convenience sample was recruited from a southern California accelerated baccalaureate nursing program. A total of 71 students participated in the study before and after taking a mental health theoretical and practicum course. The instruments used to measure stigma of mental illness was the Community Attitudes of the Mentally Ill (CAMI) scale. The dependent variable of the stigma and attitudes of undergraduate nursing students using the CAMI scale did not show statistically significant results. Individual statements in the CAMI resulted in statistically significant difference.

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