title: Exploring the antipathy of nursing staff who work within secure healthcare facilities across the United Kingdom to young people who self-harm.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper is a report of a study that compared relevant attitudinal dimensions of Registered Nurses and nursing aides working within a Young Offenders' Institute and two young people's forensic units in the United Kingdom towards young people in their care who self-harm.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Nurses caring for young people within secure environments may engage at some point with patients who harm themselves. These staff often experience strong negative emotional reactions which can lead to antipathy and alienation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty seven Registered Nurses and 22 nursing aides completed the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale, which consists of 30 attitudinal self-report items. The data were collected between June 2008 and December 2008, and analysed using spss version 17.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results displayed that age per se, length of service with self-harming clients, and whether the participant was a Registered Nurse or nursing aide, and number of self-harming clients worked with did not influence the Self-Harm Antipathy Scale score or any of its component sub-scores. However, field of nursing the nurse was registered under, previous study of self-harm, year first registered and gender showed significant effects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given that responses reflect a degree of both empathy and apathy it seems that there is a need to promote greater therapeutic alliances and communication; for example, the use of positive regard to help reduce the incidence of labelling and the negative effects this has upon relationships. There is a significant need for nursing staff working with young people who self-harm to have access to relevant educational programmes. A focus on harm minimization could be key areas for further development.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Caring Sciences, The University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. tdickinson@uclan.ac.uk
authors.forename: Tommy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.forename: Margaret
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hurley
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D053604:Forensic Nursing; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009728:Nursing Assistants / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D009740:Nursing Staff / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011287:Prejudice; D011330:Prisons / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing; D012044:Regression Analysis; D057566:Self Report; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult