The attitudes of nurses towards mentally ill people in a general hospital setting in Durban.

A quantitative survey was undertaken to determine the attitudes of nurses towards mentally ill people at King Edward VIII Hospital, large academic hospital in Durban. Data were collected by a questionnaire intended to measure attitudes according to cognitive, affective and behavioral components in a sample of 100 black nurses. The results of this study were analyzed through a statistical software package, the statgraphic version 5. The basic trend reflected in the findings found that nurses in general hospitals (90%) held negative attitudes towards mentally ill people and there were few nurses with positive attitudes. There were significant differences among the three different categories of nurses in only five of the items. Further data analysis was done by stepwise regression showing that religious affiliation and relationship to mentally ill people correlated significantly with the total attitude score.