The Opinion of Nursing Students towards Mental Illness
Mental illness is conditions that influence the thinking, behavior, and mood of a person. Some of the common types of mental illness include; bipolar disorder, clinical depression, schizophrenia, dementia and anxiety disorder. Nurses contribute significantly to the care of a patient during hospitalization, and nursing students are an essential factor in the delivery of mental health care. Most nursing students have portrayed a positive attitude towards mental illness. However, some nursing students in Saudi Arabia have portrayed continuously to be deprived in their ability and attitude towards mental illness hence having an adverse effect on the care provision. Continuous criticism and undesirable view towards psychiatric patients are related to general outcomes and patient’s functioning. Some mental health nursing students in Saudi Arabia view that dealing with mental illness patients as tiresome and hence requires extra training. The negative view may cause discrimination, stigma, impact the quality of life and affect social integration to those affected.
Several studies have been carried out across different countries to study the attitudes and beliefs of healthcare providers concerning mental illness at both general healthcare facilities and mental health. Some studies like in Finland showed that mental health nurses have a positive attitude while in Taiwan they had a negative outlook, therefore, the opinion about mental illness varies from country to country (AlYami & Watson, 2014). A literature review conducted shows that there is a published quantitative study done in 2016 in Saudi Arabia to examine the attitude of nursing students toward mental illness and the socio-demographic factors that are associated with their attitude. The results of the study portrayed that nurse’s attitude was usually positive, and others had a negative attitude. The positive attitude of a nursing student was mainly influenced by experience, contact with a mental patient and age (Koenig et al, 2014).
A study that compared medical students in King Khalid University College of Medicine in Abha about mental illness found out that there is a more negative attitude in the nursing students of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The conclusion of the study is based on a survey conducted on 52 nursing students at King Faisal University College of Medicine in Al-Ahsa. 82% of the nursing students had a negative attitude towards psychiatry because they were at risk of being viewed by others as neurotic, odd or peculiar. Others portrayed that their negative attitude was due to discouragement from their families and medical faculties (Miligi & Selim, 2014). They recommended that exposure to training in mental illness would improve their attitude towards mental illness and psychiatry in general. They also suggested that it is essential for them to be exposed to psychiatry as a portion of their regular training. Most of the 21 medical schools in Saudi Arabia now have incorporated 3-12 weeks to be used for clinical clerkship psychiatry for all medical students during their 5th or 6th years of training (Abdulghani, Al-Drees, Khalil, Ahmad, Ponnamperuma & Amin, 2014).
Factors that Affect Nursing Students’ Opinions
A qualitative study was conducted from January to March 2017 to examine factors that affect the attitudes and opinions of nursing students to patients with a mental illness. A purposive sample of mental health nursing at the eastern region of Saudi Arabia was used for the study. Data collection was conducted through the use of semi structured interviews and face to face with ten mental health nursing students. The study showed that there exist a number of factors that affect nursing student’s perceptions and opinions on mental illness and the nurses suggested various methods that can help in improving their attitude. Some factors that affect the opinions and views of mental health nursing include; social factors, personal factors and mental health nursing factors (Alshowkan, 2017).
Personal factors
Two domains of personal factors where identified that include education as student and experience with a friend or relative with mental illness.
Nurses showed that being with a friend or family member with a mental illness enabled them to feel supportive and empathetic of their friends and family members with mental illness. Therefore, they felt comfortable and confident when dealing with people who have mental illness (Colet, Cruz, Cruz, Al-Otaibi, Qubeilat & Alquwez, 2015).
Some participants highlighted that their nursing education affected their personalize view concerning patients with mental illness. The nursing students stated that it was difficult for them to understand some of the concepts of mental illness, the required nursing services and care, mental diseases and the symptom. Some highlighted that studying mental illness makes them go beyond in applying what they have learnt in their life since mental illness predominantly focuses on personal emotions and feelings. Therefore, the study of mental illness undesirably influences their opinions about themselves (Hamaideh, Al-Omari & Al-Modallal, 2017).
The nursing students highlighted that there exist several social factors that influence their undesirable view concerning people with mental illness (Kilgour, Grundy & Monrouxe, 2016). The social factors include stigmatizing of healthcare provider and stigmatizing of a patient.
Majority of the nursing students showed that they do not feel confident and comfortable to claim that they are working or dealing with people who have a mental illness. Their friends and families may be worried about them since they have undesirable views towards mental illness. Also, some stated that they do not understand the routine requirements of mental health nursing hence leading to stigmatization (Al-Ahmadi, 2014).
Personal Factors
Some nurses claimed that most of the patients claim that they lost their relationship with friends and family members when diagnosed with a mental illness condition. Some patients also claimed they are not comfortable and not accepted by their friends and families. The association with such patients affects the nurse’s opinion of mental illness hence having a negative attitude towards mental illness (Dardas & Simmons, 2015)
There were two factors identified under the mental health nursing that include inadequate resources and inadequate continuous training.
Some health nursing students claimed that they lacked adequate continuous training about mental health nursing. They reported that they lack adequate training to deal with mental health problems. Their knowledge and skills about mental health nursing depended only on their general studies. The nursing students claimed that they required up to date training workshops and courses to increase their confidence when dealing with mental health illness (Hoeve, Jansen & Roodbol, 2014).
Majority of the participants claimed that there are inadequate resources to enable them to deal with patients with mental illness. Inadequate security was one of the issues that were affecting nursing students when dealing with people with mental illness, especially female students. Female students claimed that they feared patients who were very aggressive and hence adequate security was required (Al-Eisa, Buragadda & Melam, 2014).
Conclusion
It is evident that nursing students in Saudi Arabia have different opinions and perceptions towards mental illness. Some nursing students have a positive attitude while others have negative attitudes towards mental illness. Negative attitude mainly impacts the student future career choice. Contacts with psychiatric environments and mentally ill people play an essential role in alleviating negative attitudes and anxiety towards psychiatric nursing. Promotion of encouraging clinical experience is the support that is required by the students to help in improving their opinions concerning mental illness. It is the collective role of all the stakeholders involved in mental illness to put more effort in order to improve the perceptions and opinions of nursing students toward mental illness.
References
Abdulghani, H. M., Al-Drees, A. A., Khalil, M. S., Ahmad, F., Ponnamperuma, G. G., & Amin, Z. (2014). What factors determine academic achievement in high achieving undergraduate medical students? A qualitative study. Medical teacher, 36(sup1), S43-S48.
Al-Ahmadi, H. (2014). Anticipated nurses’ turnover in public hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The international journal of human resource management, 25(3), 412-433.
Al-Eisa, E., Buragadda, S., & Melam, G. R. (2014). Association between physical activity and psychological status among Saudi female students. BMC psychiatry, 14(1), 238.
Alshowkan, A. (2017). A qualitative study of attitude towards people with mental illness among nurses in Saudi Arabia. European Psychiatry, 41, S602.
AlYami, M. S., & Watson, R. (2014). An overview of nursing in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Health Specialties, 2(1), 10.
Colet, P. C., Cruz, J. P., Cruz, C. P., Al-Otaibi, J., Qubeilat, H., & Alquwez, N. (2015). Patient safety competence of nursing students in Saudi Arabia: a self-reported survey. International journal of health sciences, 9(4), 418.
Dardas, L. A., & Simmons, L. A. (2015). The stigma of mental illness in Arab families: a concept analysis. Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing, 22(9), 668-679.
Hamaideh, S. H., Al-Omari, H., & Al-Modallal, H. (2017). Nursing students’ perceived stress and coping behaviors in clinical training in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Mental Health, 26(3), 197-203.
Hoeve, Y. T., Jansen, G., & Roodbol, P. (2014). The nursing profession: public image, self?concept and professional identity. A discussion paper. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 70(2), 295-309.
Kilgour, J. M., Grundy, L., & Monrouxe, L. V. (2016). A rapid review of the factors affecting healthcare students’ satisfaction with small-group, active learning methods. Teaching and learning in medicine, 28(1), 15-25.
Koenig, H. G., Al Zaben, F., Sehlo, M. G., Khalifa, D. A., Al Ahwal, M. S., Qureshi, N. A., & Al-Habeeb, A. A. (2014). Mental health care in Saudi Arabia: Past, present and future. Open Journal of Psychiatry, 4(02), 113.
Miligi, E., & Selim, A. (2014). Saudi nursing students’ attitudes towards the nursing profession. European Journal of Business and Management, 6(29), 197-208.
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