Assessment of Factors That Influence Nurses’ Attitudes towards Mental Illness

Introduction: Mental disorders are the most stigmatized diseases. Despite the progress in social psychiatry and the adoption of mechanisms that raise awareness in the public, mentally ill patients are continuing to be victims of discrimination. Nurses and health care professionals are working together with patients and their families in order to address issues that are raised by those behaviors. Propose: The present study aims to investigate the nurses’ attitudes towards mental disorders and their relation to the following factors: age, gender, education and working experiences in mental health settings. Material and Method: A group of 160 nurses are recruited who work in psychiatric or general hospitals as well as in community based on rehabilitation facilities. Data are obtained by an anonymous self-administered questionnaire that is consisted by demographic questions and the Opinion on Mental Illness Scale (OMI). Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations is being utilized. Inferential statistics has been used to determine relations between relevant variables. The level of significance which is accepted is p < 0.05. Results: The sample of the study consists of 160 health professionals. The vast majority of the respondents are women (75.3%), while men number to 24.7% of the total. The age of the participants ranges from a low end of 24 years of age, to high end of 56 years, with the average age being 39.40 years a standard deviation of 7.04. Age level of education and working environment yield a statistical significant difference among the respondent scores. Conclusions: Factors such as, age, level of education and working environment seem to be shaping the perceptions that nurses have about mental illness.