A Study To Assess Stigma Related To Mental Illness Among Staff Nurses Working At Selected Tertiary Care Hospital At Belagavi, Karanataka.

Despite the development of mental health services in many countries nurses working in different health care specialties may still have concerns and negative attitudes towards people with mental illness. Stigma has been identified as the main cause of discrimination and social exclusion impacting quality of life self-esteem housing and employment opportunities social networking and isolation and loneliness. Due to a fear of being stigmatized not all people with mental illness seek health care and treatment1. The objectives of the study were to assess stigma related to mental illness among staff nurses and also to find out association between stigma scores of staff nurses with selected demographic variables. Methodology Descriptive approach study was conducted among 60 staff nurses working at KLE Centenary Charitable Hospital Yellur. The sample technique was Convenient Sampling Technique. Standardized tools namely Mental Illness Clinicianrsquos Attitudes Scale MICA consisting 16-item were used to collect data. The data obtained was tabulated and analysed in terms of objectives of the study by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results found Majority of staff nurses 52 86.7 had positive stigmatization towards mental illness and 8 13.3 had negative stigmatization towards mental illness.nbsp