Abstract
This study aimed to clarify the process of recognizing patients with suicide attempt by nurses working in the emergency room (ER). The subjects comprised 12 nurses working in the ER with experience in providing nursing care for patients with suicide attempt. Data were collected through a semistructured interview and analyzed by the modified grounded theory approach. Some nurses in the ER had their belief of "wanting to help people who wanted to live" activated by the stimulus of treating patients with suicide attempt and recognized that "patients with suicide attempt were living in another world." When they provided nursing care for such patients, they had "anger and fear towards the patients" and behaved as "nurses who failed to provide sincere care." This process was supported by "an environment that allowed criticizing patients with suicide attempt." However, nurses who had experienced "emotionally involved events" with patients and their relatives recognized that "patients with suicide attempt were living in the same world as theirs" and nurses who had experienced "events where the nurses reflected on themselves calmly" recognized that "patients with suicide attempt deserved nursing care." The process of recognizing patients with suicide attempt by nurses working in the ER was to prevent their own values from being at risk.
