STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON MENTAL HEALTH CLINICAL PLACEMENTS, CLINICAL CONFIDENCE AND STIGMA SURROUNDING MENTAL ILLNESS

Abstract

Background Mental health nursing is a specialty in need for human resources but faced with a pertinent lack of desirability. Consequently, mental healthcare services are increasingly provided by general nursing staff. Mental health clinical placements offer valuable first-hand opportunities for undergraduate nursing students to interact with mentally ill persons and could possibly develop their interest in this field. Objectives To examine undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes towards mental health clinical placement experiences, clinical confidence and stigma surrounding mental illness. Methods This is a cross-sectional descriptive, correlational study that recruited a convenience sample of 144 (response rate of 81%) nursing undergraduates from a public university in Singapore to complete a paper-based survey. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used for data analysis. Results: Though 84.2% of respondents had intentions to work in mental health settings, only 11.1% intended to specialise in mental health nursing. The mean scores for the social distance scale, clinical confidence scale and clinical placement survey were 19.92 out of 35, 49.29 out of 80 and 103.43 out of 154 respectively. Attitudes towards clinical placement experiences were significantly correlated with both stigmatising attitudes and clinical confidence. Of which, intentions of working in mental health settings were specifically significantly associated with stigmatising attitudes and attitudes towards clinical placement experiences, with emphasis on greater sense of preparedness, lesser perceived anxiety and greater preferences for a future career in mental health nursing. Conclusion This study highlighted the need to improve current mental health clinical placements to better accommodate nursing undergraduates’ social needs and cultural influences to improve their attitudes towards the mental health field.