Fifty‐one second‐year students completed the Attitudes to Treatment Questionnaire (ATQ), the Conservatism Scale (CS), the Defence Style Questionnaire (DSQ) and an open‐ended questionnaire before and after components of their psychiatric training programme, which included a 1‐week placement in a psychiatric hospital CS scores indicated that the nurses were moderately conservative ATQ scores and CS scores correlated significantly, with the more conservative nurses reporting more traditional attitudes to psychiatric nursing ATQ scores fell significantly after psychiatric hospital placement, indicating more progressive attitudes Mean scores on the DSQ were within normal limits, although men scored significantly higher than women on the Immature Defences Scale immediately after placement The open‐ended questionnaire revealed mainly positive comments about the psychiatric hospital placement Almost half the nurses expressed surprise at the relaxed, informal atmosphere on the wards, and as many stated that personal interaction with the patients rapidly removed any stereotyped attitudes that they held previously Over 40% of nurses stated that the patients were much less aggressive or dangerous than they had expected, although nearly 20% said they were concerned about the levels of aggression that they observed