Background:Globally, people with mental illness frequently encounter stigma, prejudice, and discrimination by public and health care professionals. Research related to medical students’ attitudes toward people with mental illness is limited from India.Aim:The aim was to assess and compare the attitudes toward people with mental illness among medical students’.Materials and Methods:A cross-sectional descriptive study design was carried out among medical students, who were exposed (n = 115) and not exposed (n = 61) to psychiatry training using self-reporting questionnaire.Results:Our findings showed improvement in students’ attitudes after exposure to psychiatry in benevolent (t = 2.510, P < 0.013) and stigmatization (t = 2.656, P < 0.009) domains. Further, gender, residence, and contact with mental illness were the factors that found to be influencing students’ attitudes toward mental illness.Conclusion:The findings of the present study suggest that psychiatric education proved to be effective in changing the attitudes of medical students toward mental illness to a certain extent. However, there is an urgent need to review the current curriculum to prepare undergraduate medical students to provide holistic care to the people with mental health problems.

Background:Health care professions are not immune to social prejudices and surprisingly share the general public's attitude attributed to people with mental illness. Nursing students are future health manpower research related to nursing students attitudes toward mental illness is limited.Aim:The aim of this following study is to examine the undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes toward people with mental illness.Materials and Methods:Cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted for the present study. A total of 148 undergraduate nursing students were purposively selected to complete self-reported questionnaires.Results:The nursing students have significant positive attitudes towards mental illness in three of the six attitudes factors: Restrictiveness (8.59), benevolence (29.8) and stigmatization (9.18). However, these students have negative attitudes in separatism (27.1), stereotype (11.5) and pessimistic predictions (11.7) domains as they rated high.Conclusion:Academic education in this area must be planned so as to favor the change of the attitudes that include greater use of teaching strategies that challenge beliefs and assumptions and promote a commitment to provide holistic care to people with mental illness.

<p><strong>Background.</strong> Mental illness is an important public health issue worldwide; stigmatisation and negative attitudes towards people with mental illness are widespread among the general public. However, little is known about the attitudes of undergraduates to mental illness. </p><p><strong>Purpose.</strong> To compare the attitudes towards mental illness among undergraduates enrolled in nursing courses v. those enrolled in Bachelor of Business Management (BBM) courses. </p><p><strong>Methods.</strong> A cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted for the present study. A total of 268 undergraduates were selected to complete the<em> </em>Attitude Scale for Mental Illness (ASMI) and the Opinions about Mental Illness in the Chinese Community (OMICC) questionnaires. </p><p><span><strong>Results. </strong>We found significant differences between the number of nursing and BBM students who agreed with statements posed by the questionnaires, e.g., that they would move out of their community if a mental health facility was established there (χ²=16.503, <em>p</em>&lt;0.002), that they were not afraid of treated mentally ill people (χ²=15.279, <em>p</em>&lt;0.004), and that people with mental illness tend to be violent (χ²=14.215, <em>p</em>&lt;0.007) and dangerous (χ²=17.808, <em>p</em>&lt;0.001). Nursing students disagreed that people with mental illness are easily identified (χ²=30.094, <em>p</em>&lt;0.000), have a lower IQ (χ²=70.689, <em>p</em>&lt;0.000) and should not have children (χ²=24.531, <em>p</em>&lt;0.000). Nursing students were more benevolent than BBM students, as they agreed that people with mental illness can hold a job (χ²=49.992, <em>p</em>&lt;0.000) and can return to their former position (χ²=11.596, p&lt;0.021), that everyone faces the possibility of becoming mentally ill (χ²=38.726, <em>p</em>&lt;0.000), and that one should not laugh at the mentally ill (χ²=17.407, <em>p</em>&lt;0.002). Nursing students held less pessimistic attitudes, as they felt that the mentally ill should receive the same pay for the same job (χ²=10.669, <em>p</em>&lt;0.031) and that the public are prejudiced towards people with mental illness (χ²=17.604, <em>p</em>&lt;0.001).</span></p><p><strong>Conclusion.</strong> College students’ attitudes towards people with mental illness vary based on the course that they are enrolled in. Attitudes may be positively improved by revising curriculum design to incorporate educational sessions about mental illness. These are essential steps to combat discrimination, and potentially enhance the promotion of human rights for the mentally ill.</p>

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Globally, there is an acute shortage of organs for transplantation. Health professionals play an important role in raising awareness, motivating, and subsequently increasing the organ donation rates. Research related to nursing students' attitudes toward organ donation is limited from India. We aimed to assess undergraduate nursing students' knowledge, attitudes, and willingness to donate organs. This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among conveniently selected undergraduate nursing students (n = 271) using self-reported questionnaires. All the participants were aware of organ donation. A majority (n = 251, 94%) of them were unaware of organ donation law. The mean score indicates that 66.7% of the participants had adequate level of knowledge [mean ± standard deviation (SD), 7.34 ± 1.61] and 72.3% hold positive attitudes (mean ± SD, 83.9 ± 1.01) toward organ donation. Statistically significant correlation (r = 0.265, P <0.001) was observed between knowledge and attitudes of the participants toward organ donation. The findings suggest the need for revising the nursing curricula to prepare the future nurses' competent in encountering the issues related to organ donation and fostering.

Bachelor of nursing students' attitude towards people with mental illness and career choices in psychiatric nursing. An Indian perspective.

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This was a cross sectional descriptive study carried out among Medical and Nursing students to assess the presence of eating disorders. Data was collected using self administered 'Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food' (SCOFF) and 'Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26)' questionnaires. It was found that 34.1% and 10.4% of the participants were at high risk to suffer from eating disorders on SCOFF and EAT-26 scales. Further, age, gender and education found to have significant association on SCOFF and EAT-26 scores (p < 0.05). Thus, the findings suggest the need for effective interventions to prevent depression and eating disorders among the future health professionals.