Abstract
Aims and Objectives
To explore the perspectives and experiences of Irish psychiatric nurses working in acute care in regard to their role in addressing hearing voices in the people in their care, with a view to gain insight in the nurses’ personal experiences, interventions they provide, attitudes, knowledge, facilitating factors and challenges.
Background
Treatment of auditory hallucinations often takes place in acute psychiatric care. Traditionally treatment was focused on medication, but this is no longer the sole approach, with psychosocial interventions gaining ground. Psychiatric nurses have the potential to provide these interventions. As part of the changing emphasis of mental health care in Ireland towards more responsibilities for psychiatric nurses, there is a need to establish whether psychiatric nurses are prepared to take up these added responsibilities.
Design
A qualitative study, comprising of semi‐ structured interviews (n=16).
Results
Four themes emerged through thematic analysis. These included 1) the importance of therapeutic relationships; 2) reservations about the emphasis on medication; 3) limitations to interventions; and 4) the lack of focus/structure of interventions.
Conclusions
The use of systematic psychosocial interventions for people who hear voices is not well supported in the acute psychiatric settings the psychiatric nurses in the study worked in.