EFFECT OF PRACTICUM SITES ON STUDENT ATTITUDES TOWARD MENTAL ILLNESS.
Contributors: University of Cincinnati.
Published: 1989
Number of pages: 109
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Curriculum and Instruction.
Description: Changes in attitudes of associate degree nursing students toward mental illness and the mentally ill were investigated. The purpose of the study was to compare the differential effect of practicum sites on student attitudes toward mental illness.

Thirty-nine second year associate degree nursing students enrolled in the psychiatric nursing course were the subjects of the study. A modified version of Cohen and Streuning's Opinions About Mental Illness Scale was used as a pretest and posttest measure of attitudinal change, assessing stereotyped image, authoritarianism, benevolence, mental hygiene ideology, social restrictiveness, and interpersonal etiology. Two encounter conditions were tested: (1) psychiatric affiliation conditions which support the stereotype will function and maintain such conceptions of mental patients and may make attitudes toward them even more negative, authoritarian and restrictive; and (2) psychiatric affiliation conditions which contradict the stereotyped image of the mentally ill.

Students were arbitrarily assigned into two groups. Group I, N = 27, were students assigned to long-term, chronic facilities. Group II, N = 12, were students assigned to short-term acute facilities. Analysis of covariance was used to compare pretest and posttest group mean scores and determine the relationship between clinical experience and changes in attitudes. Analysis of covariance showed significant effects on factors, Mental Hygiene Ideology and Social Restrictiveness at the.05 level. Means for the factors, Authoritarianism, Benevolence, and Interpersonal Etiology were in the correct direction for anticipated effects. Data demonstrated significant relationships between ACT scores and Benevolence. Admission GPA was significantly related to the factors Mental Hygiene Ideology and Interpersonal Etiology. Group I, students assigned to facilities for the chronically mentally ill, demonstrated less positive attitudes toward mental illness than Group II, students assigned to clinical facilities for short-term, acute mentally ill.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-02, Section: B, page: 0663.

Thesis (ED.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI, 1989.

School code: 0045.