Bachelor of nursing student' attitude towards people with mental illness and career choices in psychiatric nursing. An Indian perspective.

OBJECTIVE To examine undergraduate nursing student' attitudes toward people with mental illness and mental health nursing. METHODOLOGY This was a cross sectional descriptive study carried out among conveniently selected nursing students (N=116). Data was collected through self- reported questionnaires. RESULTS Majority of the participants agreed that the theoretical (81.1%) and clinical placement (85.4%) was adequate. Similarly, 62.9% would like to apply for a post-basic program in Psychiatric nursing and 69.8% of the students intend to pursue their career as mental health nurses. However, a majority expressed that people with mental illness are unpredictable (80.2%), cannot handle too much responsibility(71.5%), more likely to commit offences or crimes (84.5%) and more likely to be violent (44%). Negative stereotype domain had significant relationships with future career (r=-0.2, p= 0.003), course effectiveness (r=-0.4, p<0.001), valuable contribution (r=-0.3, p<0.001) and readiness of the students (r=-.3, p<.000) domains. CONCLUSION There is an urgent need to address these negative perceptions among nursing students towards people with mental illness. Innovative teaching strategies and appropriate changes in the nursing curriculum is required to prepare future nurses to deal mental health problems effectively.