Mental health literacy of Chinese nurses from general and psychiatric hospital: a multi-centered survey

Abstract This study investigated the level of mental health literacy (MHL) among Chinese nurses, identifying the influential factors and exploring the relationship between mental health literacy and mental health status. A descriptive cross-sectional survey was undertaken of 777 nurses in 13 general hospitals and 12 psychiatric hospitals using the Mental Health Literacy Scale-Chinese version, Patient Health Questionnaire-2, Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2, and a demographic questionnaire, with stratified cluster sampling method employed. The total score on the Mental Health Literacy Scale-Chinese version among the nurses was 93.25 (SD = 10.52). Psychiatric nurses had higher levels of core MHL with more knowledge of mental disorders, higher ability to seek professional help, as well as recognize mental illness than nurses in general hospitals did, while they also had a lower level of acceptance of patients with mental illness. A multiple regression analysis revealed that nurses who have fewer depressive symptoms, being unmarried or divorced, with more education or higher professional titles had higher levels of core MHL, and that those nurses with longer work duration had lower acceptance of patients with mental illness. Therefore, the mental health literacy of Chinese nurses is moderate to low, and more mental health education programs or actions emphasizing knowledge, ability, recognition, and especially acceptance need to be implemented to improve the mental health literacy of nurses, with more focus on core MHL for general nurses and social acceptance for psychiatric nurses. Nurses with more depressive symptoms, less education, lower professional titles, longer work duration, and being married should be the given more attention in promotion programs.