Emergency nurse's attitudes toward mental disorders

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to present a review of the existing literature concerning attitudes of nurses at the emergency department towards mental illness under the angle of the nursing profession and the healthcare providers. The research questions are: What are the emergency nurse’s attitudes toward mental patients? What affects emergency nurses’ attitudes toward MH patients? A literature review implemented in this study is to give adequate answers to the research questions. The search for articles is found in EBSCO, CINAHL, PubMed, SCIENCE Direct databases and in google scholar. The research keywords applied are "Emergency nurse" AND "attitudes" AND "mental illness". This thesis works on the combination of attitudes theories with the modified labeling theoretical framework which is beneficial to the scenery of nursing attitudes toward mental patients and its effect on treatment process of mental patients in the emergency department. This thesis based on the qualitative content analysis in nursing research approach by Graneheim & Lundman (2004). The findings of the content analysis showed that experiences with nurses were varied, with participants describing both positive and negative interactions. Positive attitudes obtain from the components of nurses. The negative attitudes derive fear, blame, hostility, fragmentation of client care and evaluation of mental health process lack of skill and education, lack of resources/infrastructure to support the provision of safe, competent mental health care. The conclusion includes recommendations and solutions.