Effects of mental illness on the family: experiential family assessment to promote students' affective learning

Mental health nursing faculty are challenged to connect with students on an affective level in their courses. One important strategy to promote affective learning is to understand the experience of the family caregiver. There is relatively little student access to family caregivers of individuals who are identified as severely and persistently mentally ill. Consequently, nursing students may not appreciate the myriad psychosocial challenges and adaptations that family caregivers of these individuals are forced to make, often for a lifetime. This article describes a unique teaching strategy that promotes cognitive and affective learning while also providing students with a clear window into the dynamics of families of people with mental illness.