Personal Meanings Gained from Psychiatric Nursing Practice

Abstract

This study sought to clarify the personal meaning that psychiatric nurses gain from nursing practice. We surveyed 14 mid-career psychiatric nurses, using a semi-structured interview script. Results were analyzed based on the qualitative descriptive approach, with 27 subcategories generated from 926 codes and 6 categories extracted.

As experiences related to meaning that psychiatric nurses gain from nursing practice, six categories were extracted. They are “involvement in the patients’ life” “human to human relationships” “discovery of patients’ surprising aspects” “changes in patients due to nurses’ perseverance” “realization of the ability as a therapist of nurses and the meaning of existence” and “approval from staff”. Psychiatric nurse can develop deep nursing motivation by experiencing personal meaning.