BACKGROUND: Volunteering in mental health is a need for the hour, as developing countries like India have a limited health care workforce in the field of mental health. Care at doorstep (CAD) is a proven model for providing mental health services in the community, focusing on early detection, screening, referral, and identifying dropout cases. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study employed a descriptive qualitative approach to assess the readiness of nursing students to volunteer in community mental health programs. The purposive sampling method was used to recruit participants. Participants were third-year and final-year nursing students from various nursing colleges. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from the participants. The data were analyzed manually, identifying themes and subthemes. Ethical approval was obtained from the National Institute of mental Health And Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) ethical review board. RESULTS: The qualitative analysis revealed many themes and subthemes regarding the readiness of nursing students to volunteer in improving the mental health of the community. The majority have expressed their strong willingness to volunteer, but a few were in conditional willingness. Themes related to their roles, concerns, and barriers were identified. CONCLUSION: Nursing students are willing to work to improve the mental health of the community. Their expectations were personal and professional growth, and an interest in helping. Barriers to readiness were communication difficulties, fear of unpredictable behaviors, and social stigma.
Govindan et al. (Fri,) studied this question.