Abstract:
Schizophrenia is an enduring mental condition that affects about 26
million people each year globally. The purpose of the study was to assess the
knowledge of Registered Mental Nurses (RMNs) in Psychiatric Hospital, Pantang
about the role of nutrition in the management of schizophrenia. Descriptive
cross-sectional research design was used. Systematic sampling was used to select
170 RMNs for the study. A questionnaire was developed to collect data from
the respondents. The processing of data was done with the use of the SPSS and
all the research questions were analysed using descriptive statistics. The results
from the study indicate that the RMNs showed an overall positive knowledge
about the management methods of schizophrenia, but most did not know the
recommended period to detect treatment resistance and when to stop PACT
treatment. However, many did not accept that eating less nutritious food has
a correlation with schizophrenia. Lastly, the study found that knowledge about
the dietary composition of schizophrenic patients was also fair enough among
the RMNs, aside from most of them not knowing much about gluten-containing
food substances. The study recommended that mental health training institutions
must emphasise on enough courses on nutrition to help increase the knowledge
of future RMNs on the correlation between nutrition and schizophrenia.