Our study aimed to examine the
knowledge and
attitude of
nursing personnel toward
depression in
general hospitals of
Korea. A total of 851
nursing personnel enrolled at four
university-affiliated
general hospitals completed self-report
questionnaires.
Chi-square tests were used to compare the
knowledge and
attitude of registered or assistant
nurses toward
depression. In addition, binary
logistic regression analysis was used to adjust for the following confounders age-group and
workplace. Registered and assistant
nurses differed in their
knowledge and
attitude toward
depression. The proportion of rational and/or correct responses were higher in
registered nurses than assistant
nurses for the following constellation of
depressive symptoms defined by
DSM-IV (adjusted
odds ratio [aOR], 3.876; P<0.001);
suicide risk in
depression recovery (aOR, 3.223; P=0.001) and
psychological stress as a cause of
depression (aOR, 4.370; P<0.001); the relationship between chronic physical
disease and
depression (aOR, 8.984; P<0.001); and other items. Our results suggest that in terms of the
biological model of
depression, the
understanding of
registered nurses is greater than that of assistant
nurses. Moreover, specific psychiatric
education programs for
nursing personnel need to be developed in
Korea. Our findings can contribute to the development of a
general hospital-based model for early
detection of
depression in
patients with chronic medical
diseases.