Correlates of Change in Attitudes toward Mental Illness among Vocational Nursing Students

Abstract

Those 16 students who had completed the two psychology courses (a) tended to complete the practicum and (b) reported being more influenced by experiential rather than cognitive components of the practicum. In view of the previously reported findings of favorable attitude change following a psychiatric practicum for the students who had completed the two psychology courses, over-all results presented in both reports (a) confirm previous studies which suggest the effectiveness of a psychiatric practicum in changing nursing students' attitudes toward mental illness and (b) empirically support Rabkin's 1977 statement that academic instruction seems maximally effective in combination with factors such as personal experience with mental patients, etc. (as reported by the student nurses) in changing attitudes toward mental illness.