Changes in attitudes about mental illness among nursing students following a psychiatric affiliation

The purpose of this study was to determine changes in nursing students' attitudes about mental illness following a twelve-week psychiatric affiliation program in a state mental hospital. Data were collected by means of two combined opinions about mental illness scales -- Cohen and Struening's factor analytically-derived Opinions About Mental Illness (OMI) questionnaire and Ellsworth's empirically-derived Opinions About Mental Illness Scale. The sample consisted of 95 student nurses from three diploma schools of nursing. The subjects were administered the instrument at the beginning and end of their psychiatric affiliation. Following the affiliation, student nurses' attitudes about mental illness changed significantly in a favorable direction on the following attitudinal dimensions: Authoritarianism, Mental Hygiene Ideology, Social Restrictiveness, Interpersonal Etiology, Nontraditionalism, and Restrictive Control. Although significant changes were not found on Benevolence and Protective Benevolence, there was a trend toward favorable changes on both attitudinal dimensions.