The views of nurses working in psychiaty clinics on mental health literacy

Objective: The aim of this study is to set the views of nurses working in psychiatry clinics on mental health literacy. Method: Phenomenological design, one of the qualitative research methods, is used in this study. The sample of the study is consisted of 15 nurses working in Akdeniz University Hospital Psychiatry Clinic, Atatürk State Hospital Psychiatry Clinic and Antalya Training and Research Hospital Psychiatry Clinic. Semi-structured in-depth individual interviews based on open-ended questions are used for data collection. The data of the research is analyzed with the MAXQDA 2020 program by the inductive analysis method. Results: In accordance with the views of nurses working in psychiatry clinics on mental health literacy, six main themes, which include including views on the meaning of mental health literacy, mental illnesses, symptoms of mental illnesses, nursing care and treatment, nurses' attitudes towards mental illnesses, methods of protecting, maintaining and improving mental health, and A total of 107 sub-themes are obtained. Conclusion: It has been revealed that nurses working in the psychiatry clinicsare need to be educated on mental health literacy. In this context, it is recommended for nurses working in psychiatry clinics to have an in- service training regarding them. Key words: mental health literacy, nursing, phenomenology