Sustainable Mental Health Literacy among Nursing Students: A Cross-sectional Study in West Bengal, India
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31674/mjn.2024.v16i02.006Abstract
Background: Mental health nursing is one of the major subjects in all types of nursing curricula. Assessment of mental health literacy of nursing students is very crucial, as they will play a key role in nursing fraternities and society as well. The present study is aimed at assessing the level of mental health literacy among nursing students at selected nursing training institutes in West Bengal, India. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the collection of data from a total of 240 female nursing students using a census or complete enumeration sampling technique from two General Nursing and Midwifery training schools and two basic bachelor nursing colleges in West Bengal. The tool consisted of six items of structured socio-demographic profile, and the “Mental Health Literacy Scale” consisted of 35 items. Results: The overall mean score of the mental health literacy of nursing students was 117.04 (SD=11.34). General Nursing and Midwifery students scored a higher mean (119.43), (SD=9.93) than Basic Bachelor Nursing students (114.84), (SD=12.12), which was statistically non-significant (Mann-Whitney U test, U=6371, p=0.128). The Chi-Square test confirmed that there was a significant association between mental health literacy and selected demographic components, ‘Whether any previous exposure to mental health awareness programme / survey’ (5.54) and ‘Whether any previous experience of observing or caring for a person with mental illness other than in the clinical area’ (4.82), of nursing students at df (1) at the 0.05 level of significance. Conclusion: The present study results reveal a comparatively lower level of “mental health literacy” among student nurses despite an effective mental health curriculum than that of the other available studies.
Keywords:
Mental Health Literacy, Mental Health Literacy Scale, Nursing StudentsDownloads
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