Could Nursing Educational Courses Change the Attitudes of Students to Mental Disorders stigma? A Quasi- Experimental Study in Alborz University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: The prevalence mental disorders and its burden in the world is one of the most important challenges for health system and service delivery to people with mental disorders need enough and trained manpower. Stigma of mental disorders not only influence patients and their families but also is a barrier for delivering mental health services to the patients, hence beyond the knowledge and expertise, health care providers must have an appropriate attitude especially toward the stigma of mental disorder. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of mental health related courses of nursing curriculum on the nursing student&rsquo;s attitude about mental disorders in Alborz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: A quasi-experimental study with before and after design was used. All 197 nursing students who had one of the related courses of mental health, were studied for attitudes about mental disorder stigma before and after the semester. Farsi version of OMSHC questionnaire was used to measure nursing student&rsquo;s attitude. One way ANOVAs, Pearson Correlation and Paired T-Test used for Data analysis. Results: Student&rsquo;s attitude about mental health stigma didn&rsquo;t improve after the course lessons. Mental health attitude score was different based on gender (P<0/035) and marital status (P<0.006). There was a weak negative correlation between age and attitude score (r=-0.22, P