Sjuksköterskors upplevelser av att vårda patienter med självskadebeteende : En kvalitativ studie

Sammanfattning: Background: Self-injury behavior is common in society. Nurses will meet patients with these problems during their daily work. Patients with self-injurious behavior do often feel misunderstood and are often dissatisfied with the health care they are given.   Aim: the aim of the study was to investigate nurses 'experiences of caring for patients with self-injurious behavior and nurses' perceived needs for education in the subject.   Method: A qualitative study with descriptive design was performed in order to explore the nurses’ experience of caring for patients with self-injurious behavior and nurses’ perceived needs for more education in the subject. The data collection consisted of eight semi-structured interviews and was analyzed with a qualitative content analysis.   Results: The results of the interviews develop into four main categories; "Nurses 'perception of self-injurious behavior", "nurses' experience of care", "emotional impact" and "nurses need of education".Nurses where satisfied with their workplace. The nurses have a perception that most patients self-harm as an anxiety-relieving action, but that there are exceptions where patients self-harm in an attention purpose. The nurses are satisfied with their treatment when they are acting low arousal approach, but they do also experience a difficulty in balancing the low arousal approach with the natural reactions that awakes when a self-harm incident happens. The nurses feel dissatisfied with their behavior when they are unsure of how to act. The nurses say they in larger extent became emotionally affected by self-harm when they were new employees on the psychiatric ward. With more experience the nurses became more accustomed to seeing self harm. The nurses are now experiencing a greater emotional impact when health care fails to help patients in the long term. All the nurses who participated in the study want more education in the subject.   Conclusion: The nurses say they thrive in their workplace and their work with patients who self-harm, but they sometimes experience difficulties in caring for these patients. Lack of time, stress and repetitive self-injurious acts are stressful for the nurses. The nurses describe that there is generally a negative attitude among health professionals towards these patients, which the nurses believe can change with more education on the subject. All nurses interviewed wanted more education about self-injury.