Diploma Nursing Students' Attitudes toward Psychiatric Nursing, Role Models, and Clinical Placement

A study was conducted at Humber College to investigate the attitudes of college-prepared diploma nursing students towards psychiatric nursing. Specifically, the study sought to determine the effect of psychiatric nursing role models on student attitudes, and whether a relationship existed between clinical placement and student attitudes. The study sample consisted of 38 diploma students entering the psychiatric nursing course at Humber College, including 21 assigned to psychiatric units in two community hospitals and 17 placed in a large mental health center in Ontario. The majority of the students (89%) had no previous exposure to nursing, and 56% had previous contact with mentally ill persons. Most of the students (77%) were under 32 years of age. The Attitude Toward Psychiatric Nursing Scale was given to the students at the beginning and end of the course, and the Environmental Rating Scale administered when the clinical experience was completed. Student attitudes were more positive toward the staff at the mental health center than toward the staff at the community hospitals. On the pretest, those students placed in the mental health center held a more positive attitude than students in the community hospitals, though after the psychiatric nursing course the groups in the community hospitals had a more positive change in their attitudes than those in the larger center. The most positive attitude changes at the community hospitals concerned milieu therapy, psychotherapist orientation, and the community mental health model. The more negative changes for the larger mental health center concerned the medical model, psychotherapist orientation, and the community health model. There were no significant differences in the student groups' responses to the Environmental Rating Scale. Study results supported an increased emphasis on the role of intervention in nursing. Contains 27 references. (ECC)