Creative Accommodation: Role Satisfaction for Psychiatric Staff Nurses

Limitations inherent in team nursing practice can be a source of professional role dissatisfaction for nurses. Leading an inpatient educational group is proposed as one method of creatively accommodating to the limits of the psychiatric staff nurse role while simultaneously enhancing patient care and meeting organizational needs. Seven registered nurses with varied educational backgrounds participated in leading assertiveness groups in a psychiatric inpatient setting. Three self-report inventories were used to measure changes that would result from involvement in this expanded patient care activity during a nine-month period. The results of this preliminary investigation demonstrate improved job satisfaction as well as increased assertiveness and professional self-image. These interrelated findings point to the value of the creative accommodation method as an effective means to improve nursing role satisfaction.