Student health professionals' attitudes and experience after watching "Ida's Diary", a first-person account of living with borderline personality disorder: Mixed methods study

Abstract

Background There is increasing interest in the use of commercial movies in nursing education, or “cinenurducation”. There is a need for educational interventions which target mental health nurses' attitudes towards people with borderline personality disorder. Objectives To investigate and evaluate the experience and effects of attendance at a screening of the movie Ida's Diary, a first-person account of living with borderline personality disorder. Design Mixed methods design comprising a within-subjects AB longitudinal survey, and a qualitative analysis of participant-generated data and researcher field notes from a World Café discussion group. Settings One university in Scotland. Participants N = 66 undergraduate and postgraduate mental health nursing and counselling students. Methods Participants completed measures of cognitive and emotional attitudes towards, and knowledge about, people with borderline personality disorder before and after one of two film screenings. We conducted a World Café discussion group after the second screening. Resulting data were subject to a qualitative thematic analysis. Results Quantitative analysis revealed a five-factor cognitive and a single-factor emotional attitude structure. Cognitive-attitudinal items related to treatment deservingness and value of mixed treatment approaches improved across iterations. Total knowledge score did not change, but one item about borderline personality disorder as a precursor to schizophrenia received considerably more incorrect endorsement post-screening. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: Facilitation and inhibition of learning; promotion but not satiation of appetite for knowledge; challenging existing understanding; prompting creativity and anxiety; and initiating thinking about the bigger picture. Conclusions Participants found the film thought provoking; it increased their appetite for knowledge. Findings suggest that screening should be delivered in conjunction with more didactic information about borderline personality disorder.