This study aimed to clarify what type of supporting relationships nurses develop with borderline personality disorder (BPD) patients under the structured hospital environment during the performance of their nursing activities. The subjects were 9 psychiatric nurses who had similar qualifications and experience with 5 or more BPD patients (Holloway & Wheeler, 1996). A semi-structured interview based on the interview guide was performed to collect data, and the data was analyzed using Grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990/1999). The result showed that the supporting relationship with BPD patients under the structured hospital environment was "the supporting relationship between those who waited for a chance to nurture each other by protecting and controlling". The relationship was initially established by "the encounter with BPD patients who were likely to break the relationship with the nurses who had concerns and anger over the patients", followed by a behavior/interaction to "establish the supporting relationship in the hope of the growth of the patients even when the nurses had negative feelings toward the patients due to unpredictability of the outcome of the relationship", and finally by "the possibility of reward that might be induced by long-term involvement with the patients, while the nurses felt helplessness arising from difficulties among the nursing activities related to the BPD patients.

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Objective: Through fieldwork conducted in a psychiatric ward, this study aimed to clarify aspects of the interactions between a nurse and a patient from the nurses' experience, and examine the therapeutic meanings and difficulties in the nurse-patient relationship, within the context of inpatient psychiatric treatment. Methods: Practical research using participant observation. Participant observation was conducted once a week for a period of 22 months in a single ward (subacute phase psychiatry), a total of 84 times, recording and analyzing interactions with six patients. Results and Discussion: Compared to other occupational categories in the medical setting, nurses interacted with patients in less distinct parameters of time, place, and content, and the patients' narratives included not only words but body contact as well. It was found that intersubjective contact clearly plays an important role in nurses' efforts to understand the chaotic narratives of patients fragmented by delusional thinking or auditory hallucination. The experience, however, aggravated feelings of anxiety in the nurses, leading at times to the routinization of interaction as a defense.

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The study aimed to examine the experiences of home-care service users with schizophrenia. For this, Giorgi's descriptive phenomenological psychological method was used, and seven participants were interviewed. The findings revealed five themes: "wanting to be saved from the suffering," "submission to the medical professionals," "the warm relationship with the nurse," "the unfitness with the nurse's care," and "daily tasks they can manage on their own." The level of psychiatric care was not enough to develop a positive attitude towards the home-care service. It was found that a positive relationship between the nurse and the user was not sufficient. In such cases, participants felt that the nurse was not appropriate for them. This indicates that it is necessary for nurses to understand people with schizophrenia. This includes understanding how the patient regularly lives and that they often find it hard to express their intentions and prefer to work alone. It is necessary for the nurse to build a relationship and encourage the patient to express his/her views. In addition, it is important that decisions regarding the aims and termination of home care are made by the nurse and patient together.

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Purpose: We investigated the effect of implementing interviews using Hot Charts, which multilaterally assesses auditory hallucinations, on psychiatric nurses' cognition of and coping with complaints of auditory hallucinations. Method: We paired 23 patients with auditory hallucinations (subject 1) with 23 attending nurses (subject 2) and conducted three rounds of interviews. Subject 2 and individuals from a control group (subject 3) answered a questionnaire assessing nurses' cognition, emotions, and coping with regard to complaints of auditory hallucinations before and after the interviews. The results were then statistically compared (p<.05). Results: A comparison of answers before and after the interview revealed a significant difference in active and cooperative coping for subject 2 in the assessment of coping. In addition, after interviews, there was a strong tendency to talk about coping, which helped in alleviating symptoms and situations in which auditory hallucinations were likely to occur. No differences were noted for subject 3. Conclusion: Interviews using Hot Charts increase opportunities for conversations between nurses and patients who complain of auditory hallucinations and may provide a chance for patients and nurses to share information regarding the occurrence of auditory hallucinations and how to cope with them.

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This study aimed to clarify the effects of attending Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings designed for female members only in preventing them from developing depression due to alcoholism. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 18 alcoholics women. Four categories were extracted from the interview data: preventing withdrawal from social interactions, providing a safe place for regaining self, providing a place for empowerment to grow out of dependency, and providing the women a means to express empathy and share their feelings. It appears that women with depression due to alcoholism tend to hold a negative view about their own life, but after participating in AA meetings they had discovered a new way of living or had come to have a positive outlook on life while gaining awareness that other group members relied on them. This process seems to have given them confidence in their own life. In conclusion, a positive cycle of effects was observed between participation in AA meetings and improvement of depressive symptoms.

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This research clarifies the process by which medical and welfare staff who engage in the treatment of alcohol dependency cope with their own negative emotions and acquire a sense that alcohol dependency treatment is worthwhile. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 13 people; 4 categories and 16 concepts were derived from the analyses conducted using the M-GTA. Initially, these staff members expressed possessing a "sense of helplessness and anger about unreasonable demands." However, as they undertook initiatives to understand their subjects, they began to emotionally understand the experiential world of the people they were treating that was earlier based on merely an intellectual understanding of the condition of dependency. Thus, a "deepening of their understanding of the conditions of this illness" occurred. Their understanding was an outcome of the personal experiences with the people they were treating; this enabled them to positively cope with negative emotions and connect to the "practice of a medical treatment approach" focusing on rehabilitation. As these staff members developed these connections, they engaged with patients recovering from dependency and eventually began feeling that "treating people with alcohol dependency is worth doing and makes them happy." It was suggested that coping with negative emotions requires establishing an organizational support system. This necessitated a well-balanced understanding wherein background information can be linked to the symptoms that are the biggest challenges and cause for this coping process.

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