The Therapeutic Relationship in the Shadow: Nurses' Experiences of Barriers to the Nurse-Patient Relationship in the Psychiatric Ward

The therapeutic relationship is widely accepted as the basic core and essence of the psychiatric nurse's role and is thus essential for providing quality mental health care. A detailed and clear perception of the issues that facilitate or obstruct this relationship is therefore important. The p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Issues in mental health nursing 2015-07, Vol.36 (7), p.551-557
Main Authors: Pazargadi, Mehrnoosh, Fereidooni Moghadam, Malek, Fallahi Khoshknab, Masoud, Alijani Renani, Houshang, Molazem, Zahra
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Attitude of Health Personnel
Female
Humans
Iran
Male
Middle Aged
Nurse's Role
Nurse-Patient Relations
Nursing
Nursing Staff, Hospital
Psychiatric Department, Hospital
Psychiatric Nursing
Qualitative Research
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Summary:The therapeutic relationship is widely accepted as the basic core and essence of the psychiatric nurse's role and is thus essential for providing quality mental health care. A detailed and clear perception of the issues that facilitate or obstruct this relationship is therefore important. The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the experiences of nurses working in psychiatry wards, of the barriers to the nurse-patient relationship. A qualitative content-analysis study was undertaken using a purpose-based sampling approach with the participation of 15 nurses employed in psychiatric wards in hospitals located in South Iran. Semi-structured interviews provided the source of data, and an inductive content-analysis approach was used for data analysis. The main concept extracted from the study was identified as 'the therapeutic relationship in the shadow', which captured the sense that this critical relationship is mostly unseen in the daily practice of the nurses interviewed. Factors that functioned as barriers to this relationship were classified into three main categories: nurse-related, patient-related and organization-related. The results of this study revealed that, despite the widely claimed importance of the nurse-patient relationship in psychiatric settings, this relationship is powerfully influenced by individual and organizational factors that have not been considered adequately in previous research. It is strongly recommended that greater consideration of these factors be given to care planning in psychiatric wards.
ISSN:0161-2840
1096-4673
DOI:10.3109/01612840.2015.1014585