THE EFFECT OF MENTAL HEALTH MANAGEMENT PROGRAM TO MENTAL HEALTH OF NURSING SUAN DUSIT UNIVERSITY

Abstract

               Objective: The objective of this quasi-experimental research is to study the impacts of mental health management program on mental health of nursing students, Faculty of Nursing, Suan Dusit University.

               Methods: Fifteen participants who provided key informants were nursing students, Faculty of Nursing, Suan Dusit University who study mental health and mental health component. Participants were purposively sampling for structure interviewing with open-end questions. Thirty-two nursing students who had the mental health scores lower than a normal scores range, were divided into the experimental group and the control group equally. The experimental group took part in the mental health management program for 9 sessions; each session lasted 60 - 90 minutes. The control group was only provided with regular health education. Research instruments were: (1) the Thai Mental Health Indicators (TMHI-54), (2) the guideline of in-depth interview on the attitude and adaptations and 3) the mental health management program. The t-test was used for data analysis.

               Results: The findings reveal that: (1) 70.7% of the 258 nursing students had the scores of mental health in the normal range. But 32 of them (8.8%) had the lower scores; (2) according to structured interview with open-end questions, the nursing students had good attitude and adaptability to the nursing program including rules, well-being and environments; (3) after the program was terminated, the experimental group had the post-tested average scores of mental health and its components significantly higher than the pre-tested average scores (p < .05); (4) after the program was terminated, the experimental group had the post-tested averages scores of mental health and its components significantly higher than the post-tested average scores of control group, considering mental state, mental capacity and supporting factors. It is only the mental quality of the experimental group are not significantly different from the control group (p > .05).

               Conclusion: The mental health management program increases the nursing students’ ability to manage their mental health, including change to better acknowledgement to their feelings and others’. This contributes to the trend in building motivation, understanding of oneself, making a decision by oneself, and change of the attitude towards oneself and others. Therefore, teachers and those who are interested could apply this program to students according to time and place. More importantly, the program leader for a similar program should have the experience and skill in managing mental health management program in order to gain the effectiveness of the program.