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

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.