The language of cutting: initial reflections on a study of the experiences of self-injury in a group of women and nurses.
Non-suicidal self-injury is a distressing act, which can arouse dissent and negative comment in service users and providers. The purpose of the study was to describe how women who self-injure and nurses assign meaning to shared discourses about self-injury. The wider study is framed in a grounded theory methodology. Fourteen qualified nurses and 11 women who have self-injured were interviewed using unstructured and initially open-ended interviews, lasting 45-90 minutes. Initially a thematic analysis was used to code data. In this report, three of the early themes are reported with some comparative interpretations. Nurses lack understanding of the meanings of cutting behaviour. A common language is needed if nurses are to be effective in helping women who have self-injured to express distress in less damaging ways.
Reece
Judith
J
University of Derby, Nursing, Counselling, and Psychotherapy, Derby, England. J.H.Reece@Derby.ac.uk
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D001828:Body Image; D003142:Communication; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006379:Helping Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D024802:Nurse's Role; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D012652:Self Mutilation / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D012660:Semantics; D013240:Stereotyping; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology*