Does stigma affect how Scottish acute care nurses provide care for people with a diagnosis of depression?

Abstract

Background Depression is a mental illness that can host many different damaging symptoms affecting 350 million people across the world and is a main contributor to disability (WHO 2015). Depression can lower a person's mood and change the way they think to such an extent that they can struggle to function and complete tasks that they once enjoyed (Wasserman 2011). Many people who suffer with depression do not seek professional help; this is due to the fear of social stigma and feelings of shame (Rusch et al 2013). Stigmatising behaviour can not only be identified socially but from staff within the hospital setting (Waterworth et al 2015). In order to reduce the reluctance of people to seek professional help for depression more needs to be done to reduce the negative social stigma of depression. Aims This research proposal aims to discover if stigma of depression impacts the care nurses provide within the acute setting by establishing in what ways people receiving care may have been aware of this stigma. This explorative research proposal is the first phase of a wider study, aiming to use the information collected to generate a new understanding of how to reduce stigma to create nursing theory that will improve the standards of care provided to patients with a diagnosis of depression. Methods This explorative study would be conducted using an inductive phenomenological approach. Qualitative semi-structured interviews would be used to gather the thoughts, feelings and perceptions of 8-10 participants on their experiences of stigmatising behaviour within an acute ward setting. The findings would be used to generate a new understanding of how stigma possibly held by acute care nurses can impact the care they provide. The findings of this study would hopefully aid further research in the attempt to reduce the stigma of depression.