Barriers and Needs of Mental Health Nursing Practitioners toward the Provision of Physical Health Care for Individuals with Severe Mental Illness: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Survey in India.

Despite the potential and opportunity for nurses in mental health settings to deliver comprehensive care to individuals with severe mental illnesses, existing evidence indicates inadequacy in providing physical health care. To understand this gap, we examined the mental health nurse's attitudes, practices, training needs, and barriers toward physical healthcare of individuals with severe mental illness and explored the associated socio-demographic differences. All mental health nurses working in an apex mental health care center in India were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire, which included a socio-demographic profile and the Physical Health Attitude Scale (PHASe). Overall, the nurses held positive attitudes, with items related to smoking and confidence toward physical health care delivery showing more positive ratings than those items related to attitude and perceived barriers. Lack of motivation from patients and nurse's workload in provision of psychiatric care were perceived as major barriers. Nurses with lesser years of experience had a slightly more positive attitude. The findings have important implications for mental health nursing practice and training toward strengthening holistic nursing care for individuals with severe mental illness, specifically in countries with limited resources.

Misconceptions about traumatic brain injury among nursing students in India: implications for nursing care and curriculum.

BACKGROUND: Despite the devastating consequences of Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), TBI misconceptions are common among healthcare professionals. As an essential member of multi-professional team providing TBI care, it is important that nurses have correct information and adequate skills to achieve the best possible outcomes for TBI. For example, some common misconceptions about TBIs are that a second blow to the head can improve memory functioning and wearing seatbelts can cause as many brain injuries as it prevents. In India, perhaps such misconceptions towards TBI among nursing professionals were not yet documented. As nursing students form the future health workforce, understanding TBI misconceptions among nursing students in resource-limited settings like India will provide useful information for strengthening the nursing curricula for improved care and rehabilitation of TBIs. METHODS: We used a cross-sectional survey to study the TBI misconceptions among nursing students in India. A Common Misconceptions about Traumatic Brain Injury (CM-TBI) questionnaire was administered to 154 nursing students from a nursing college of a tertiary care neuro-centre in India. The mean percentage of misconceptions were calculated for 7-domains of CM-TBI. T-test for independent samples and ANOVA were used to study the association of misconception with socio-demographic variables using total score for each respondent. RESULTS: Of the 143 nursing students who completed the survey, majority of them were female (97%) and in the 19-20 year age-group (95.1%). Domain on brain damage (81.1%) had highest rate, while amnesia domain (42.0%) had lowest rate of misconception. The overall mean-score was 22.73 (Standard Deviation: 4.69) which was significantly higher than the median score of 19.5. The study did not show significant differences on overall misconceptions about TBI for any of the socio-demographic characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: Misconceptions about TBIs were common among nursing students and it was pervasive irrespective of age, gender, place of residence and year of education. A need to strengthen nursing curriculum in the area of TBIs has been emphasized for improved care and management of TBIs. The study findings also suggest the need for understanding such misconceptions among other healthcare professionals involved in TBI care.

Health-promoting behaviours, their relationships and correlates in nursing students: Implications for nursing education and practice.

BACKGROUND: Despite numerous studies across the globe, most studies on Health-Promoting Lifestyle behaviours among nursing students were restricted to descriptive analysis with limited implications for nursing education and practice. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the level of health-promoting lifestyle behaviours, analyze their relationships and correlates among nursing students. METHODS: Cross-sectional study was conducted among 270 nursing students in India. Socio-demographic profile and Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II scale were administered. Subscales inter-correlation were computed. Hierarchical multivariate logistic regression was used to determine the predictors of Health Promoting Behaviours. RESULTS: Nursing students had modest level of health-promoting behaviours (131.57 ± 17.90). Physical activity had the lowest score (16.44 ± 4.31). Regression analyses showed health-related characteristics to have more influence on health-promoting behaviours than socio-demographic characteristics (p < 0.002). Nursing students with insufficient physical activity (AOR = 0.26; 95% CI: 0.13-0.52) had poor Health-promoting lifestyle profile than those with good physical activity. CONCLUSION: There is a need to strengthen the nursing curriculum and training environment to promote physical activity for nursing students to promote their health and empower them as future health promoters.