Knowledge and Attitudes of Nurses toward Concept of Milieu Therapy

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic milieu refers to an environment that is structured to provide patients with the opportunity to interact with staff and other clients. Producing a therapeutic milieu is a basic intervention in mental health nursing practice. Consequently sufficient knowledge and positive attitudes are important aspects of providing nursing care for psychiatric patients within the current social climate. This study aimed to assess knowledge and attitudes of nurses toward the concept of milieu therapy. This study was exploratory descriptive, performed on 100 nurses working with psychiatric patients at El-Abbassia Mental Health hospital. Data were collected using three parties, socio-demographic data, and knowledgeof nurses about the milieu therapy and the attitudes of nurses toward milieu therapy. The results of this study showed that nurses working with psychiatric patients possess a satisfied level of knowledge about the definition and aim of milieu therapy (75%) meanwhile; they have unsatisfying knowledge about activity therapy (52%). However, the studied nurses showed a high level of sympathetic attitudes toward psychiatric patients (74%), the negative attitudes toward milieu therapy was observed in (90%).Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the nurses with satisfactory knowledge were more probable to have a positive attitude towards the milieu therapy. The study recommended that in-service education programs should be provided to nurses working with psychiatric patients regarding knowledge about activity therapy and how to promote patient participation.