Investigation of the placement readiness of final-year nursing at a university in the Western Cape, South Africa students toward mental health nursing

Abstract

As defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), health includes mental wellbeing (World Health Organization, 2004) and therefore is an important part of nurse training. Like all placement environments, the mental health placement environment provides learning opportunities where student nurses can put theory into practice and develop clinical confidence, but the uniqueness of the environment could leave a student uncomfortable and with a poor learning experience (Gaberson, Oermann, & Shellenbarger., 2014).