A comparative study to assess the Attitude of Nursing Professionals and caregivers towards the Rights the of Mentally Ill

Aim: The present study was an attempt to assess the Attitude of Nursing Professionals and caregivers towards the Rights the of Mentally Ill. The objectives were to study the socio demographic characteristics and compare the Nursing Professionals and care givers  attitude towards the rights of mentally ill. Method: after the informed consent, 50 nursing professionals and 50 caregivers were randomly selected from the study population. The socio demographic schedule and the Professional attitude scale (David et al 2002) were used to collect the data..Discussion: The mean age of the study group was 38.33 years and the range is 23 to 60 years. Among care givers majority of them belongs to Hindu religion, studied up to higher secondary, and from rural background. About the nursing professionals majority of them belongs to Hindu religion studied up to diploma in General nursing and midwifery, and working as staff nurses with less than 10 yrs of experience. Professional attitude found that the subjects are having positive attitude towards the rights of mentally ill and there were significant differences between Nursing professionals and Caregivers in four of the six domains of patients’ perceived rights. Specifically, there were differences between groups in terms of situations that justify non treatments and forced hospitalization. Overall attitude scores obtained by both the group were found to be significant. Conclusion: Due to the chronic nature and significant impairment in decision making capacity among mentally ill patients makes both the nursing professionals and caregivers to act in accordance to the patient’s needs rather than considering the patients’ rights.Key words: attitude, care givers, nursing professionals