Using poetry to discover and share significant meanings in child and adolescent mental health nursing.
OBJECTIVE
Does writing and reading poetry help nurse-therapists, students, and clients reflect on significant meanings and gain a greater understanding of intense clinical situations?


OBJECTIVE
To describe the use of poetry in managing intense feelings, discuss the relevant literature, articulate how students and clients responded to the use of poetry, and address the limitations of such an approach.


METHODS
Published literature, clinical expertise, and poems written by the author.


CONCLUSIONS
Writing and reading poetry helps clinicians, students, and clients give voice to situations that touch their hearts. Poetry and literature should be used more extensively in clinical and educational settings.
Raingruber
Bonnie
B
California State University, Sacramento, California, USA. bonnie.raingruber@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D001638:Bibliotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D002648:Child; D006801:Humans; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D011037:Poetry as Topic; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D012660:Semantics