Mental health nurses' beliefs about likely outcomes for people with schizophrenia or depression: a comparison with the public and other healthcare professionals.

This paper explores mental health nurses' beliefs about prognosis, long-term outcomes and discrimination in response to vignettes describing a person with either schizophrenia or depression. Mental health nurses were added to previous research describing the beliefs of professionals (psychiatrists, general practitioners and clinical psychologists) and the public. This study used a self- completion, postal survey procedure. Mental health nurses tended to be more negative than the community but more positive than the other professional groups (particularly the medical professions) about long-term outcomes and prognosis. Nurses were similar to the medical professional groups in believing that considerable discrimination occurs within the community. Given the potential impact on consumers and the public, all practitioners need to be aware of their own beliefs and those of their professional colleagues.