Empowerment in the interpersonal field: discourses of acute mental health nurses

Abstract

Social policy greatly influences the working environment of mental health nurses but in practice can be difficult to translate. Empowerment of service users is one area that is constantly significant in policy, locally and nationally, yet quite difficult to define in practice. This ethnomethodological study explored the practice of 10 mental health nurses working in an acute admissions unit. Through semi-structured interviews, the nurses were asked to discuss the taken-for-granted methods of empowerment with individual service users, their families and with work colleagues. The results were thematically analysed and compared with international findings, which reflected an awareness among mental health nurses of empowering practice in four areas. These were: Working with mental illness, Making connections, Responsibility and Teamworking.

The bulldozer and the ballet dancer: aspects of nurses' caring approaches in acute psychiatric intensive care

“…We also found other studies by for example Berg & Hallberg (2000), Forchuk et al. (2000), Lloyd (2007) and Shattell et al. (2007) which describe approaches of psychiatric nurses similar to that of the ballet dancer.…”

“…Yet, nurses continue to cultivate caring relationships with patients – relationships based on support, respect, flexibility and empowerment (Cleary & Edwards 1999, Johansson et al. 2007, Lloyd 2007).…”

Professional Culture of Mental Health Services Workers: A Meta-synthesis of Current Literature

“…MHSW's role may involve users' empowerment and advocacy of people's rights, as seven studies noted [12,13,21,31,37,45,51]. Staff may encourage users to take responsibility for themselves [31,42], helping them to take back control of their lives [31].…”

‘There should be something gained’: Carers’ ethical reasoning about using a common staff approach in psychiatric in-care

“…A number of studies have explicitly aimed to investigate the ethical and moral standpoints and actions of carers, most often nurses, in psychiatric care. [6][7][8][9] Related studies of carers' experiences of providing psychiatric nursing care at communal group dwellings or psychiatric in-care settings highlight ethics, [10][11][12][13] empowerment, 14 or control and protection of patients. 15 Earlier studies of a common staff approach in psychiatric care have shown that ethical questions and conflicts between ethical perspectives arise when carers have to choose whether to be loyal to their colleagues or to the patient.…”