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Managing the stresses of nursing people with severe and enduring mental illness: A psychodynamic observation study of a long‐stay psychiatric ward
Author(s) -
Goodwin Anne M.,
Gore Veronica
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
british journal of medical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 0007-1129
DOI - 10.1348/000711200160534
Subject(s) - unconscious mind , psychodynamics , mental illness , psychology , vulnerability (computing) , task (project management) , psychiatry , nursing staff , nursing , mental health , psychotherapist , medicine , psychoanalysis , computer security , management , computer science , economics
The task of nursing people with severe and enduring mental illness can evoke stresses and anxieties for staff which are not consciously known about, but which, nevertheless, impinge upon the quality of care delivered. As a way of exploring this issue, the interactions between staff and between staff and residents in long‐term residential care were observed. Alongside efforts to rehabilitate residents, nurses behaved in ways at variance with this task. These behaviours seemed to serve a function of protecting the staff group from the unconscious anxieties the work provoked. These can be understood interms of three fundamental anxieties regarding the client group, stemming from their mental illness (fears of ‘madness’ and loss of control), the severity of their disabilities (responsibility and vulnerability), and the chronicityof their difficulties (failure and despair). Better ways of managing these anxieties may be possible if they can be known and thought about.