Analysis of accident and emergency doctors' responses to treating people who self-harm.
Self-harm is a prevalent phenomenon regularly faced by doctors and nurses working in accident and emergency (A&E) departments. We argue that the treatment decisions A&E doctors make are fundamental to decreasing the high risk of suicide among this group. In this article we present a qualitative study exploring how doctors working in A&E respond to treating people who self-harm. In total, five A&E doctors were interviewed and the data were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three main themes were extracted: treating the body, silencing the self, and mirroring cultural and societal responses to self-harm. Within these themes, we identified both facilitative and unhelpful aspects of the relationships between people who self-harm and A&E doctors. We consider the clinical implications of these findings within the context of A&E doctors having limited opportunities to address the relational nature of the care they offer to this group.
Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Wokingham, Berkshire, United Kingdom.
Jo
J
Hadfield
Dora
D
Brown
Louise
L
Pembroke
Mark
M
Hayward
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000628:therapy*