An exploration of psychological help-seeking of nursing students and the factors which effect these attitudes

This study is carried out as a descriptive research to investigate the psychological help- seeking of nursing students and to investigate the factors which effect these attidues.The sampling for the study was 248 students who were enrolled at the Dokuz Eylül University School of Nursing during the academic year 2006-2007. Data was collected through a questionnaire consist of questions about the characteristics of students and help- seeking questionnaire. The data was evaluated with Varyans Analysis, t-Test and Mann Whitney U Test.In the study 57.8% of students live at the student dormitory. The 81.9% of the mothers and 64.1% of the fathers of the students are graduated from the primary school.In the study it was found that, 39% of students seek help from psychiatrist/psychologist/doctor for their psychological problems. The third and fourth classes? points they get from the interpersonal openness, being forced, reliance to the counselor subscales are better than the first and second classes? points they get from the same subscales. Third classes students? points they get from the feling necessity subscale are better than the second classes students? points they get from the same subscale. The second, third and fourth classes students? points they get from the social acceptance subscale are better than the first classes points get from the same subscale. The students whose mothers have higher educational level get better point from the interpersonal openness and social acceptance subscale than whose mothers have low educational level. The students who did not get help before have better point from the interpersonal openness subscale than the student who got help before.According to these results; it is recommended to observe the first and second classes? students more carefully for the psychological problems and it is recommended to study help seeking attitudes of students from the first class to tha last class.Key words: Psychologic help seeking, help-seeking attitudes, nursing students, psychological problems.