Objective: Nursing students were reported to hold discriminatory attitudes towards people with mental illness across various countries. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the educational intervention, a mental health nursing course on reducing discrimination towards people with mental illness among nursing students. Methods: A quasi-experimental study with a before-after design was conducted, involving 57 nursing students from a public university in China. The discrimination attitudes were measured by the Stigma Scale towards people with Mental Illness. The paired Student’s t-test was used to compare the discrimination attitudes before and after the course, and the independent two-sample t-test was used in the subgroup analysis to compare the impact of the intervention among different genders. Results: No difference in the overall discrimination attitude was found among nursing students before and after the course (t = 0.395, p = 0.694). There was a significant difference in scores in the social distance (t = 3.156, p = 0.002) and danger dimension (t = −3.588, p = 0.000) before and after the course. Conclusion: The course improved the attitude toward social distance, whereas increased the discrimination in danger dimension. More effective educational interventions were needed to develop further studies.
Cite this paper
Qin, S. , Zhou, H. and Hu, Y. (2024). A Mental Health Nursing Course to Reduce Discrimination towards People with Mental Illness among Nursing Students: A Quasi-Experimental Study. Open Access Library Journal, 11, e11585. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1111585.
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