KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE ABOUT MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG NURSING STAFF

Abstract

ABSTRACT The magnitude of mental health problem is cosiderable. However the attitude of the general public towards mental illness and mentally ill people is largely negative. Perception and knowledge of the nursing staff on this topic is important as they directly deal with patients and their relatives, and they are also involved in disseminating health information. A negative attitude is known hindrance to providing quality service to mentally or physically ill persons. This study, therefore, carried out among nursing staff at B. P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) a tertiary care center in Nepal, aims to find out nurses’ knowledge and attitude about mental illness. It is a cross-sectional, descriptive study with 110 respondents, who were predominantly females (97.27%) and young (mean age=25.7year). The study revealed some interesting findings as many of the participants thought mentally ill people are ‘ insane’ (37.5%). The majority had showed their knowledge about causes of mental illness as genetic or inherited (65.4%) and biochemical disturbances (90.0%). About three fourth were ready to work together (71.8%) and chat with them (91.8%). Respondents expressed their faith in psychiatrists (93.5%) but less in faith healers (3.0%). The vast majority had obtained information about mental illness from ‘seeing mentally ill persons’ (94.0%) followed by communication with medical personnel (84.5%). This study revealed that there was overall adequate knowledge and by and large a positive attitude. Key Words: Mental health, nurses, knowledge, attitude, Nepal.