The Effectiveness of an Educational Program on the Mental Health Literacy of Nurses Working in General Hospitals: a Controlled Trial
The Effectiveness of an Educational Program on the Mental Health Literacy of Nurses Working in General Hospitals: a Controlled Trial
Mental health literacy is a concept that encompasses knowledge of mental health, mental illnesses, and their management; mental illness-related attitudes/ stigma; and help-seeking efficacy. It impacted care provision by affecting healthcare professionals' ability to recognize, manage and prevent mental illnesses. It was found that physical-mental comorbidity (co-occurrence of physical and mental illnesses) imposed a burden on patients and the healthcare system. However, the referral rate to psychiatric consultation-liaison in general hospitals was low could be attributed to the suboptimal level of mental health literacy of general hospital healthcare professionals. Nurses are the major healthcare workforce in general hospitals for the initial identification of mental illness, help doctors to deal with patients' conditions, and make a contribution to positive patient outcomes in general hospitals. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve the mental health literacy of nurses working in general hospitals.
An education program had been developed guided by the concept of mental health literacy, and self-efficacy theory. This study aims to examine the effect of an educational program on improving the mental health literacy of general hospital nurses, in terms of knowledge of mental health, mental illnesses, and their treatment; attitude or stigma about mental illnesses; and help-seeking efficacy. It also measures the interventional effect on perceived competency in caring for patients with mental illness and work stress among general hospital nurses, as well as patient satisfaction with nursing care in general hospitals.
This study is a prospective 2-arm parallel controlled trial. The study sites will be conducted in the emergency departments and medical wards of two similar regional general hospitals. It is estimated using GPower that a sample size of 64 participants per group is adequate to detect an effect size of 0.5 on the primary outcomes at a post-intervention time point with 80% power at a 5% level of significance. Participants will be assigned to either an intervention group or a control group. Participants in the intervention group will receive a Mental Health Literacy Program consisting of six 30-minutes online educational sessions and one 60-minutes face-to-face session. No active intervention will be given to the control group. Outcome measures will be measured by the Mental Health Literacy Scale, the Behavioral Health Care Competency survey, the Workplace Stress Scale, and Hospital Patient Satisfaction Survey at baseline, immediately after intervention, and one-month after intervention.
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