Rising Rates of Mental Health Conditions: How Do We Prepare Our Undergraduate Nursing Students?

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to describe the process for which a concept based undergraduate accelerated psychiatric nursing didactic and case study content was developed and tailored to strategically promote confidence in the management of mental health conditions with a focus on substance use disorders (SUDs). The significant changes to daily life due to the COVID-19 pandemic have resulted in an increase of individuals struggling with mental health conditions including SUD. Training for nursing students is limited in mental health, suggesting the need to find ways to efficiently provide this much needed educational content in variable curriculum designs. Methods: Accelerated undergraduate nursing students from an urban Midwest University were asked to participate in a pre-post quality improvement mixed methods study. Themes derived from the responses from the pre-survey were used to create mental health content which addressed fears and discomfort associated with SUDs. Following the education a post survey was completed. Analysis of descriptive and inferential statistics were completed on variables. Results: The findings from both the pre and post survey indicated one of their biggest fears in working with individuals with SUD’s was encountering violence and aggression. After class, the post survey results indicated that their comfort level increased slightly after receiving the specific content in class. Conclusion: Providing educational exposure regarding mental health conditions may be a means to help to alleviate student anxiety towards this patient population. Improving student comfort in caring for the mental health population using tailored content which recognizes their fears may also promote improved quality of care.