Nurses' personal statements about factors that influence their decisions about the time they spend with residents with long-term mental illness living in psychiatric group dwellings.
One seldom-discussed issue is the factors that influence nurses' decisions about the time they spend with residents in psychiatric care. This study uses a qualitative naturalistic approach and consists of an analysis of focus-group interviews with nurses, which aimed to identify factors affecting nurses' decisions about being with or being nonattendant in their relationship with their residents. Two series of focus-group interviews were conducted, interpreted and analysed through content analysis. The study included all the staff (n=32) at two municipal psychiatric group dwellings housing residents mainly with a diagnosis of long-term schizophrenia. This study revealed that the main factor that determined nurses' nurse/resident time together or nonattendance time was whether they liked or disliked the individual resident. One possible explanation is the carers' change from a perspective in which the nursing care was given on the basis of each resident's needs and rights, based on the individual nurse's professional judgement, to a consumer perspective, which leads to a change in responsibility from themselves to the individual residents.
Hellzén
Ove
O
Department of Nursing and Health Sciences, Mid-Sweden University, Sundsvall, Sweden. ove.hellzen@mh.se
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003657:Decision Making; D017144:Focus Groups; D016352:Group Homes / Q000458:organization & administration; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009736:Nursing Process; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000523:psychology*; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000458:organization & administration*; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012114:Residential Treatment / Q000458:organization & administration; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000451:nursing*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden; D017748:Time Management / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D016526:Workload