Author(s)

Vida Staniulienė, Mary Chambers, Xenya Kantaris, Raija Kontio, Lauri Kuosmanen, Anne Scott, Maria Antónia Rebelo Botelho, Renzo Zanotti, Maritta Välimäki

Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku and Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Tuusula, Finland.
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku and Hospital District of Southwest Finland, Turku, Finland.
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland.
Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland.
Faculty of Health Sciences, Klaip?da State College, Klaipeda, Lithuania.
Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Kingston University and St. George’s, University of London, London, UK.
Nursing Research and Development Unit, Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Lisboa, Coimbra, Portugal.

High levels of distress and disturbance amongst those experiencing acute mental illness can be a major problem for mental health nurses. The feelings experienced by these nurses when caring for and supporting disturbed and/or distressed patients along with their concurrent thoughts are not well described in the literature. To date, this complex issue has not been explored within a comparative European context. The objective of this qualitative study was to explore the feelings and thoughts of mental health nurses when supporting and caring for distressed and/or disturbed patients in 6 European countries. Methods: Focus groups were used to collect data from 130 mental health nurses working in acute inpatient psychiatric settings. Results: Data were analysed using content analysis. Findings highlighted 6 broad themes: 1) Mixed emotions: expressive and responsive, 2) Procedure for caring for and supporting disturbed and/or distressed patients, 3) Use of guidelines for caring and supporting disturbed and/or distressed patients, 4) Team and organisational support, 5) Ethical concerns: Cognitive dissonance and 6) Education and training. Commonalities and differences were found across all themes. Approaches to care, nurses’ role and education, clinical guidelines and/or standards vary from country to country, therefore the care, treatment and management of distressed and/or disturbed patients are various. As a result, mental health nurses have different experiences, various emotional quandaries concurrent with cognitive dissonance and different coping strategies when caring for and supporting distressed and disturbed patients. Conclusions: More emphasis needs to be given to the emotional quandaries and concurrent cognitive dissonance experienced by mental health nurses caring for distressed and/or disturbed inpatients in acute psychiatric settings. Increased access to education and training with particular attention to interpersonal communication and relationship building within clinical teams needs to be a priority given the experiences described by mental health nurses.

Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Settings; Cognitive Dissonance; Coercive Interventions; Feelings Mental Health Nurse; Thoughts

Staniulienė, V. , Chambers, M. , Kantaris, X. , Kontio, R. , Kuosmanen, L. , Scott, A. , Rebelo Botelho, M. , Zanotti, R. and Välimäki, M. (2013) The feelings and thoughts of mental health nurses concerning the management of distressed and disturbed in-patients: A comparative qualitative European study. Open Journal of Nursing, 3, 426-436. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2013.36058.