Intervention to Decrease the Stigma of Nursing Students

Introduction Mental illness stigma is influenced by empathy, culture, and beliefs. However, few researchers specifically consider empathy, culture, and beliefs when designing interventions to reduce stigma. Schizophrenia is the most stigmatized mental illnesses. Nursing students will play the role of health educators and provide care for patients in the future. Their stigmas will negatively impact the care quality provided to people diagnosed with schizophrenia if not properly attended. This study intends to examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of an education and contact intervention programme aiming to improve nursing students' knowledge and empathy of schizophrenia and decrease their negative attitudes and stigma behavior towards people with schizophrenia. Methods and Analysis This is a two-phase study design. Phase 1 development includes a literature review and a descriptive qualitative study. Phase 2 is a pilot study, the feasibility, accessibility, and efficacy of the pilot RCT will be assessed by the quantitative and qualitative study. In the first phase, descriptive qualitative study with focus group and a literature review will be used to inform the intervention development of a pilot RCT. The second phase includes a pilot RCT including 60 nursing students who 7 practice in clinical settings of a tertiary hospital. These nursing students will be randomly assigned into the intervention group and the control group. The pilot study intervention consists of three stages, including the investigative learning activity (lasting about 6 hours), the collaborative activity (lasting about 4 hours), and the higher-order thinking activity (lasting about 4 hours). Both the intervention group and the control group will be interns in the tertiary hospital simultaneously when they take part in this study. The control group go through only one stage--they will be given a book about schizophrenia knowledge and asked to finish reading it in four weeks. After the pilot intervention study, there will be a process evaluation of a qualitative interview. Both first and second phase qualitative study will use qualitative research of fourth-year nursing students being focus groups interviewed. The pilot intervention study outcomes include nursing students' knowledge, attitude, and behavioral intentions regarding stigma towards schizophrenia, and nursing students' empathy towards people with schizophrenia. The pilot intervention study effect will be evaluated by the researcher and the results of the two groups will be compared on the baseline (T0), post-intervention (T1), and three months follow-up (T2).