It is important to define psychiatry nurses’ attitudes towards suicide to improve the quality of suicidal patients’ care and develop the necessary change of the attitude for preventing the suicide.
The aim of this study with cross-sectional descriptive design is to determine the nurses’ attitudes working at psychiatric wards towards suicide.
The study population was composed of 106 nurses working at psychiatric wards in a Ministy of Health State Hospital. Data is collected by “Information Form”. First and second section of form include 26 questions, the nurses’ personal and professional specialties and working experiences in psychiatry plus, nurses’ own and environmental suicidal experiences. The third part, 37 questions, includes Attitudes towards Suicide Questionnaire (ATTS) by Salander-Renberg ve Jacobsson (2003). The ethical approval and the permission of the hospital are obtained by the relevant authorities. All participants are informed and it is based on voluntary written and oral consent.
Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics (percentage, mean, standard deviation, range, minimum-maximum scores), Kruskall Wallis, Mann Whitney-u Test and Spearman Rank Correlation Analysis.
Mean age of nurses was 34,77±7.93, 86,8%(n:92) were female, 61.3%(n:65) were married, 42,5%(n:45) were graduated from university and mean length of working in psychiatry was 99,12±95,55 (approximately 8 years). Nurses had neither suicidal thoughts nor plan however only 4 of them (3,8 %) had attempted suicide. Nurses’ environmental suicidal experiences were mostly seen on suicidal thoughts by friends.
Almost half of the nurses believed that suicide can be prevented (46,2 %; n=49) but can never be justified (39,6 %; n=42), suicide happens without warning (51,9 %, n=55) and people who commit suicide are not usually ill (50 %, n=53). Nurses who were experienced suicidal plan/thought/threat in family showed that suicide is acceptable and anybody can commit suicide (Zmw=-2,296/p=0,02). The age and the perception of the efficiency of caring suicidal patients were correlated with some of ATTS questions.
Psychiatry nurses as the forefront healthcare givers have an impact on attitudes towards suicide with their personal and professional experiences. There should be prepared professional guidelines to improve the efficiency of caring suicidal patients and provide the positive changing on attitudes.
