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I can't see myself seeking help' : The influence of clinical placements on nursing students' stigmatising beliefs and intentions to seek help for their own mental health issues : A prospective cohort study
Moxham, Lorna Roberts, Michelle Yousiph, Taylor Jay, Elissa-Kate Lewer, Kelly Robson, Georgia Drury, Peta Cordina, Joanne Villeneuve-Smith, Suzi Patterson, Christopher
Moxham, Lorna
Roberts, Michelle
Yousiph, Taylor
Jay, Elissa-Kate
Lewer, Kelly
Robson, Georgia
Drury, Peta
Cordina, Joanne
Villeneuve-Smith, Suzi
Patterson, Christopher
Abstract
Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and psychosis represent a global health challenge. Stigma surrounding mental health continues to hinder help-seeking behaviours for people with mental illness and as this study demonstrates, nursing students as well. However, if student nurses are reluctant to seek help for mental health issues, how can others be expected to do so? This reluctance poses challenges in mental health nursing, impacting both care provision and nursing education. The present study seeks to explore the influence of traditional versus non-traditional mental health clinical placements on second-year nursing students' stigmatising beliefs and intentions to seek help for mental health issues. Employing a prospective cohort design using the TREND checklist, the study sampled second-year nursing students assigned to either traditional hospital-based or non-traditional recovery-focused mental health clinical placements. Using validated scales, stigmatising beliefs and help-seeking intentions were measured before and after the placements. Statistical analyses were conducted to assess changes in these variables over time and across placement settings. A significant impact of placement setting on help-seeking intentions was observed, with students in non-traditional placements showing an increased willingness to seek help. Additionally, non-traditional placements were found to significantly reduce stigmatising beliefs in all measured domains, suggesting that these settings may provide a more conducive environment for fostering positive attitudes towards mental health. Recovery-focused placements appear to offer experiences that can diminish stigma and encourage more positive perceptions and intentions related to mental health support.
Keywords
clinical placements, help-seeking behaviour, nursing education, recovery-focused care, stigma
Date
2025
Type
Journal article
Journal
International Journal of Mental Health Nursing
Book
Volume
34
Issue
1
Page Range
1-9
Article Number
Article e13429
ACU Department
School of Nursing, Midwifery and Paramedicine
Faculty of Health Sciences
Faculty of Health Sciences
Relation URI
Source URL
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
CC BY-NC 4.0
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2024 The Author(s). International Journal of Mental Health Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.