Knowledge and Attitudes of Nurses toward Concept of Milieu Therapy

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic milieu refers to an environment that is structured to provide patients with the opportunity to interact with staff and other clients. Producing a therapeutic milieu is a basic intervention in mental health nursing practice. Consequently, sufficient knowledge and positive attitudes are important aspects of providing nursing care for psychiatric patients within the current social climate. This study aimed to assess nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward the concept of milieu therapy. This study adopted an exploratory descriptive research design, performed on 100 nurses working with psychiatric patients at El-Abbassia Mental Health Hospital. Data were collected using an interview questionnaire including three parts, socio-demographic data, nurses' knowledge about the milieu therapy and the attitudes of nurses toward milieu therapy. The results of this study showed that nurses working with psychiatric patients possess a satisfied level of knowledge about the definition and aim of milieu therapy (75%) meanwhile; they have unsatisfying knowledge about activity therapy (52%). However, the studied nurses showed a high level of sympathetic attitudes toward psychiatric patients (74%), the negative attitudes toward milieu therapy, was observed in 90%. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that the nurses with satisfactory knowledge, were more probable to have a positive attitude towards the milieu therapy. The study recommended that further researches about milieu therapy needed to be constantly monitored, evaluated, and adapted to meet the needs of the individual patients.