Abstract
The purpose of the study is, by focusing on "threat" - the chief constituent of a traumatic experience - to clarify through interviews the kinds of threatening experiences that nurses in psychiatric practice have had, and to consider the modalities of these experiences and their impacts. I performed semi-structured interviews with nine nurses working in psychiatric units, and the data was analyzed qualitatively and inductively. From the results, it was found that the participants felt threatened by "being targeted," "seeing or hearing about an attack on or intimidation toward others," "encountering suicide among patients," "being sexually assaulted," "being exposed to unpleasant sexually suggestive acts or delusions," and "becoming emotionally undermined by patients." These were traumatic experiences, and on such occasions the nurses felt alone and isolated, feeling their identity to be at risk. The experience of psychological victimization as depicted by the participants included secondary traumatic stress that occurs when one assists those who themselves are psychologically hurt. The results suggested that the nurses' anxiety over losing a sense of control may intensify their sense of crisis, leading them to incline more toward isolating or physically restraining patients. To improve the mental health of nurses and, in turn, their care for psychiatric patients, measures should be taken to achieve a better understanding of and recovery from traumatic experiences among nurses.
