Scholarly Article

Article review: " the variability of nursing attitudes towards mental illness: An integrative review"

Millions of people globally suffer from mentally related health issues. However, although most mental illnesses are treatable if diagnosed early, many victims do not seek medical care. In addition, those who are diagnosed with mental health issues tend to terminate the treatment prematurely. However, the quality of care provided to mental health patients depends on the nurse's attitude. For instance, if the healthcare provider has a negative attitude towards the mentally ill, it could contribute to their premature termination of treatment and stigma among the patients compared to when the healthcare provider has a positive attitude. Therefore, the “ the variability of nursing attitudes towards mental illness: An integrative review" article examines the different perceptions of nurses toward mentally ill patients and their impacts.

The research objective was to examine the different perceptions of nurses towards mentally ill patients. The study utilized the perception of 4282 participants across twenty different countries. Approximately 450 million people globally present mental health issues. For instance, in the US, cases of mental illnesses are approximately 43.7 million (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). However, about 39% of the victims seek medical help, but most of the patients prematurely stop the treatment (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). The main cause for termination was linked to the nurse's attitude towards the patient, where a negative nurse-patient relationship could trigger the patient to terminate treatment. The study indicated that different nurses have different perceptions regarding mentally ill patients, and the nurses' care is negatively impacted if a patient is mentally ill. Nurses' stereotyping of patients with mental illness prevents them from recognizing the issue. The nurses' attitudes and the general public perception were comparable hence blurring the nurses' professional expertise in the field (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). However, nurses that have attained higher education levels were more optimistic regarding mental illness. The themes established include specific attitudes towards patients with depression and schizophrenia, social isolation, perceiving mental health patients as dangerous, and mental illness etiology (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). Therefore, understanding the different nursing attitudes regarding mentally ill patients could help improve patient care and mitigate premature treatment termination.

However, the study presented various strengths and weaknesses. For instance, one of the study's strengths is the examination of the attitude of nurses across different countries, giving a wider view to the audience (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). On the other hand, the study's weaknesses include limited databases, which could have omitted critical studies to offer evidence. Also, the study focuses on examining countries other than the united states. Hence, more investigation needs to be done on nursing attitude in the US to obtain a more comprehensive view (de Jacq, Norful, & Larson, 2016). However, I would recommend this article to a colleague as it helps understand how the healthcare provider's attitude could negatively/positively impact the quality of care in dealing with mental health patients. Therefore, although the article has strengths and weaknesses, it is detailed, reliable, and credible. Hence, it could be recommended to offer a comprehensive view of the impact of nursing attitude toward the mentally ill.

The purpose of the " the variability of nursing attitudes towards mental illness: An integrative review" article was to examine the different perceptions of nurses toward mentally ill patients. Approximately 450 million people globally present mental health issues. For instance, in the US, cases of mental illnesses are approximately 43.7 million. However, about 39% of the victims seek medical help, but most of the patients prematurely stop the treatment. Therefore, understanding the different nursing attitudes regarding mentally ill patients could help improve patient care and mitigate premature treatment termination. In addition, different cultural values and beliefs could determine the different nursing attitudes established in the study. However, although the article has strengths and weaknesses, it is detailed, reliable, and credible. Hence, it could be recommended to offer a comprehensive view of the impact of nursing attitude toward the mentally ill.

References

De Jacq, K., Norful, A. A., & Larson, E. (2016). The variability of nursing attitudes toward mental illness: An integrative review. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 30(6), 788-796. doi:10.1016/j.apnu.2016.07.004