Passive Patients: A Challenge to Psychiatric Nurses

TOPIC: Psychiatric patients' participation in their care. PURPOSE: To describe psychiatric patients' participation in their own care in a hospital environment. METHODS: Data were collected by videotaping different nursing situations (n = 10) and recording interviews of the patients (n = 16), nurses (n = 29), and nursing students (n = 7) afterward. Deductive content analysis techniques were used to analyze the written data, using the following categories of psychiatric patients' participation as a theoretical framework: passive recipient, responsible recipient, and responsible participant. FINDINGS: The results showed that 64% of the patients were passive recipients of care, 22% were responsible recipients, and 14% were responsible participants. CONCLUSIONS: Patients' participation as responsible participants in their care provides a foundation for better collaboration, listening to the patient, participatory dialogue, and resource recognition.