Nurses' Emotional Experience of Attending to Patient Narratives on Psychiatric Ward:

From the Perspective of Compassion Fatigue

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to shed light on nurses' emotional responses, in particular the state of their compassion fatigue, while attending to the narratives of psychiatric inpatients in a clinical setting, and to discuss how to actively enhance nurses' involvement in listening to patients' narratives.
Methods: Semi-structured interviews were performed with eight nurses who work at different psychiatric hospitals. The interviews were then qualitatively and descriptively analyzed.
Results and discussion: When listening to patients' accounts of traumatic experiences, the nurses experienced painful emotions such as guilt, anxiety, fear, anger, and exhaustion, leading to compassion fatigue. Ward culture, which discourages sharing of such narratives, prevented the nurses from unburdening themselves about these occurrences to their coworkers. Fostering a culture in wards which would enable nurses to talk openly about their emotional experiences without anxiety is important, not only to further the narratives of patients, but also to protect the nurses' mental health.