‘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

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.