Abstract
Recovery is a complex and multifaceted concept and it varies significantly from individual to individual. There are also different opinions on factors which actually work as facilitators and some other factors that hinder the process of recovery. The study aimed at exploring the perceptions of the nursing students about recovery of persons with mental illness and identifying the factors affecting recovery. The present study deals only with the qualitative approach findings. Based on convenience sampling and their willingness, 460 undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students from various colleges of nursing in India who came for clinical experience to a neuro-psychiatry super-speciality institute in South India took part in the study. A semi-structured validated and pre-tested self-administered questionnaire was distributed to the students. Thematic analysis was conducted further using atlas.ti software. Majority (86.5%) of the students were female and undergraduates (77.6%). Around 4% (n = 19) of the students had family history of mental illness whereas more than half (54.1%) of the students had experience of taking care of persons with mental illness. The major themes identified were: Concept of recovery, Facilitators of recovery from mental illness, Barriers of recovery from mental illness and Ways to overcome those issues. The study provides the preliminary findings of nursing students’ perception of recovery from mental illness. This study has helped not only to identify factors affecting recovery, but it has also provided important insights for future work on interventions to improve perceptions of this section of the mental health workforce.