Acceptance vs. rejection: nursing students' attitudes about mental illness

Abstract

The influence of a psychiatric nursing course on BSN students' attitudes toward mental illness was the subject of quasi-experimental research. Attitude theory was the conceptual framework for the study. The Opinion about Mental Illness (OMI) questionnaire was given to a group of nursing students before and after an eight-week course. Half of the students took the course, the other half served as a comparison group. Nursing students taking the course changed more than the control group on authoritarianism and interpersonal etiology but expressed higher stereotypical attitudes.