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Nursing student attitudes to psychiatric nursing and psychiatric disorders in New Zealand
Author(s) -
Surgenor Lois J.,
Dunn Janet,
Horn Jacqueline
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-0979.2005.00366.x
Subject(s) - mental illness , nursing , medicine , psychiatry , medline , nurse education , psychology , mental health , political science , law
Attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatric nursing can have far‐reaching consequences for patients and the perceived desirability of this as a future career choice. Attitudes can be both brought into training and affected by training experiences, although the direction of these associations is unclear. Using a cross‐section design, this study investigates the associations between attitudes, demographic variables, mental illness exposure, and career aspirations in 164 nursing students. Year of training and area of intended practice independently predicted attitudes. These findings have important implications for nursing training. They demonstrate the need for specifically focusing training to target the students with the most negative attitudes.