Nursing students' attitudes towards mental illness: A multi-national comparison.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Stigmatizing attitudes perpetuated by nursing professionals are a pervasive problem for people experiencing mental health issues. This global issue has detrimental consequences; inhibiting one's life chances and help-seeking behaviours. To date, few studies have compared nursing students' attitudes towards mental illness from a multi-national perspective. To compare undergraduate nursing students' attitudes towards mental illness across six countries: Australia, India, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and USA. In a cross-sectional design, data were collected from undergraduate nursing students (N = 426) using the Social Distance Scale. A one-way analysis of variance was used to compare differences between countries. Nursing students' attitudes to mental illness differed between countries. Social Distance Scores were highest amongst nursing students from Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Students from Taiwan and India possessed moderate stigma scores. Social Distance Scores from the USA and Australia were lowest. Clear differences in stigmatizing attitudes emerged between countries; these are discussed in relation to possible cultural influences. It is suggested that educating nurses, combined with direct contact with people with lived experiences of mental illness, can reduce stigmatizing attitudes regardless of country, location or educational institution.