Stigmatizing attitude of Nursing students towards patients with Mental Illness

Background: People with mental illness often experience stigmatized attitudes from the general public and health professionals themselves. Objectives: This study aimed to examine and compare the attitude toward mental illness among nursing students at one of the government nursing colleges in Oman. Methods: The study used a cross-sectional approach, using a quantitative, descriptive-comparative design with a sample size of 177 students from first-, second-, and third-year nursing programs. The data were gathered through an online Google Survey Form using an adapted attitude Scale toward mental illness-Singapore Version (AMI-SG). The data was analyzed using descriptive analysis such as frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, and inferential statistics using ANOVA/t-test. Results: The study findings revealed that the overall attitude of nursing students in one of the public nursing colleges was positive (53.1%) toward the patient with mental illness. Most of the second (59.3%) and third-year (62.1%) students had positive attitudes compared to the first years (40%); however, the difference was not statistically significant (p>.05). Conclusion: Even though there was no significant difference in attitudes towards mental illness among different groups, overall, nursing students harbored a positive attitude towards patients. Overall, students were positive towards social distancing, social restrictiveness, prejudice, and misconception, except for tolerance/support for community care. Therefore, gaining insight into nursing students' tolerance/support towards mental illness needs further evaluation. Early exposure to mental health courses and awareness programs on mental issues may favor a positive attitude among future nursing professionals toward people with mental illness. The study calls for further studies with larger samples to validate our study findings with various health professionals to minimize the stigmatized attitude with a broader scope.