UNCOVERING A WORLD OF MENTAL-ILLNESS - AN ANALYSIS IN PERCEPTUAL TRANSFORMATION IN UNDERGRADUATE NURSING-STUDENTS

The culture of nursing education is a major influence in transforming student nurses' perceptions of mental illness and nurse educators are the primary facilitators in this process. Undergraduate nursing studen ts' perceptions of mental illness change positively, however, it has n ot been understood how these changes occur. This pilot study extends u nderstanding of how 22 undergraduate psychiatric nursing students' per ceptions of mental illness became transformed during the course of one semester. The author analyzed student narratives using Heideggerian H ermeneutics. Five students, who wrote narratives, read a manuscript di scussing the constitutive pattern and the relational themes and consen sually validated the interpretation. The constitutive pattern that eme rged is the Uncovering of Mental Illness. Three relational themes were identified that contributed to, and led to the development of the con stitutive pattern. The three themes are (1) uncovering others' samenes s through differences, (2) coming face-to-face with mental illness, an d (3) the staff nurse influence in the uncovering process. In addition to increasing understanding of perceptual transformation, the finding s from this interpretation suggest that nurse educators can guide stud ents in the development of therapeutic relationships by facilitating t he uncovering process. Copyright (C) 1996 by WB. Saunders Company