Psychiatric nurses’ communication with psychiatric patients

Abstract

The psychiatric nurse, as a member of the multi-professional mental health team, utilises a goal-directed approach to assist the psychiatric patient in mobilising resources to promote, restore and maintain his mental health as an integral part of his quest for wholeness. This goal-directed approach is the nursing process which comprises assessment, planning, implementing and evaluation. All four steps of the nursing process and the nurse’s interaction with the patient are dependent upon therapeutic communication. Therapeutic communication remains important as the core of all nurse-patient interactions. The aim of this research was to explore and describe the viewpoints of psychiatric nurses on their communication with psychiatric patients and to formulate guidelines for psychiatric nurses. Such guidelines should assist nurses with their communication with psychiatric patients, helping in the restoration and maintenance phases of the patients’ mental health.