The Perceptions of a Selected Group of Adolescent Psychiatric Patients Concerning the Nurse's Role in Their Care

Powell, Jere Ann

Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation

The Perceptions of a Selected Group of Adolescent Psychiatric Patients Concerning the Nurse's Role in Their Care Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/jm214p459

Abstract

The problem of this study was to determine the adolescent psychiatric patients' perceptions of the nurse's role in their care. The purposes of this study were to arrive at conclusions which might be beneficial in; (1) setting up in-service education units for professional and non-professional personnel; (2) setting up a unit of study on the adolescent psychiatric patient for the professional nursing student; and (3) providing knowledge about the nurse's role with the psychiatric patient which might be used to provide better care for the patients. Normative survey with the open-ended interview was the method used in the study. The two questions which constituted the interview schedule were; "Can you tell me what things the nurse has done for you since you have been here in the hospital?" and "If you had an ideal situation and could have the nurse do the things you would like for her to do, what things would these be?" Twenty adolescent psychiatric patients from three hospitals were the population for the study. Data were categorized into five major areas which described the nurse’s role; these categories in both questions were in similar order. The categories ranged from highest response to lowest as follows; (l) Nurse Therapist; (2) Companion; (3) Mechanical Nursing Functions; (H) Parent Substitute; and (5) Housekeeping Functions. Recommendations made were: (1) the nurse's role with adolescent patients should be reconsidered, since in most of the literature reviewed little was mentioned about the nurse as a therapist and this was the most frequent response offered by the patients; and (2) the opinions of the adolescents which indicated the nurse might function secondly as a companion could be used in in-service education with nursing personnel.

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