Nurses' perception of caring for mentally ill patients in a surgical ward

Abstract

Research has shown that when mentally ill patients are admitted in a general hospital they are not given the care they deserve and are often stigmatised. Due to the stigma attached to mental illness, mental health problems are often underestimated, underdiagnosed and untreated (Riecher-Rossler et al., 2006). The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate what are the nurses' perception when a mentally ill patient is admitted to their ward. The participants were 15 nurses working in different surgical wards. Open-ended questionnaires were handed out to the Nursing Officers and distributed by them to the nurses and were collected back when were completed. Each questionnaire was read, coded with a letter and a number and was manually analysed. A priori themes were formed after literature review and later categories were formulated from the study in order to fit these themes. The four themes that were formulated were; feelings and attitudes, knowledge and workload, delivery of care and stigma. A set of recommendations were made so that when mentally ill patients are admitted to a general hospital they are given the care needed and are not treated differently than other patients.