The psychiatric patient's right to self-determination: a preliminary investigation from the professional nurse's point of view.
The aim of this preliminary empirical investigation was to explore the concept of self-determination and to discuss its applicability to psychiatric nursing. The data were collected with a questionnaire submitted to professional nurses (n = 127) working on the long-term wards in four Finnish hospitals. Data analysis combined the methods of content analysis and quantitative statistics. A tentative concept apparatus was created in order to provide nursing science with a broader understanding of the issue at hand. Nurses identified various factors that act to restrict and to support self-determination: the most common restrictive factor was the patient's illness or condition, and the most common supportive factor was nursing intervention. Views differed on the importance of self-determination in the case of psychiatric patients; over half of the nurses described the right to self-determination as very important. On the basis of the findings it is concluded that self-determination is a valid concept for the psychiatric patient. It was also thought to serve the needs of education as well as evaluation.
Välimäki
M
M
University of Turku, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Nursing, Finland.
Helenius
H
H
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000451:nursing*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010344:Patient Advocacy; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires