Psychiatric care of people at risk of committing suicide narrative interviews with registered nurses, physicians, patients and their relatives

Abstract: The aims of this thesis are to illuminate the meaning of being cared for and treated by nurses and physicians, as narrated by psychiatric suicidal in-patients; the meaning of taking care of and treating patient at risk of committing suicide, as narrated by nurses and physicians; and the meaning of being met and having one’s suicidal relative taken care of by health personnel, as narrated by relatives. Narrative interviews were conducted with 42 adult patients at risk of committing suicide in an in-patient psychiatric unit, 19 RNs, 19 physicians, and 15 relatives at a hospital in Norway. The tape-recorded and transcribed interviews were interpreted using a phenomenological hermeneutic method.Nurses’ relations to patients at risk of committing suicide were illuminated via the dimension ‘Distance- Closeness’ (I). The relation of the suicidal patient to the nurses was illuminated via the dimension ‘Confirming- Lack of confirming’ (II). The relation of physicians to patients was illuminated via the dimension ‘Power to - Power over’. (III). The relation of suicidal patients to physicians was illuminated via the dimension ‘Participating approach-Observing approach’ (TV). Results from the relatives’ experiences of being met by health personnel of suicidal patients reveal that the context of being met was characterized by ‘being helpless-powerless’, and that the meaning of the experiences of ‘being met’ was reflected in six themes: ‘Being seen as a human being’; ‘Participating in an I-Thou relationship with personnel’; ‘Trusting personnel, treatment and care’; ‘Being trusted by personnel’; ‘Being consoled’; and ‘Entering into hope’ (V).The interpreted meanings of the experience of being cared for as a person at risk of committing suicide were illuminated as confirmation, communion, consolation and hope. Threaded through these meanings is the relation with self and others. Thus, the essence of the results that emerged from this study indicates the presence of a relational view of the care received by people at risk of committing suicide.