Attitudes towards mental illness: the influence of education and experience

Female nursing students who had completed an instructional and experiential training program were compared on their perception, beliefs and opinions about mental illness with students who had just entered the same program. The results showed that students who had completed their training were better able to perceive the presence and severity of mental illness. Both groups favoured psychosocial etiology and psychosocial forms of treatment. There was no difference in their attitudes towards the mentally ill and both groups shared an overall optimism about prognosis. The implications of the lack of sophisticated knowledge about psychiatric disorders among mental health professionals are discussed.