Psychiatric patients often do not receive the same health treatment reserved for patients with no mental disorders. Stigma in mental-health nurses can worsen the patients’ healing time and quality of care.

To explore the different attitudes towards mental illness and psychiatry in nursing students (NS) of the first and the final year of university, and the importance of having visited a psychiatric ward and having known a psychiatric patient.

Fifty NS completed the following tests:

– Community attitudes towards mental ill (CAMI);

– Attitudes towards psychiatry (ATP-30);

– Empathy quotient (EQ).

NS of the final year differ significantly from those of the first year in 4 CAMI items, in Authoritarianism subscale (P = 0.041), Social Restrictiveness (P = 0.029) and Community Mental Health Ideology (P = 0.045), indicating a more mature and responsible approach to psychiatric patients, without considering them a threat to be secluded. EQ does not show a significant difference in empathy, not even considering the individual items. Final year NS also have more positive attitudes toward Psychiatry in 3 ATP-30 items and total score (P = 0.01). Those who visited a psychiatric ward have more positive attitudes towards mental illness and Psychiatry, in 6 CAMI items and 3 ATP-30 items. Having personally known a psychiatric patient leads to positive attitudes in only a few CAMI items.

Last-year NS, who have had more direct relationships with patients through practical training, have more empathetic and less stigmatizing attitudes. It is also very useful to attend a psychiatric ward during the nursing training.

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The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.