Review of caring nurse-patient interaction for nurses caring for psychiatric patients

Objectives: This study reviews the caring nurse-patient interaction level of nurses caring for psychiatry patients. In addition, the effect of nurses' spiritual support, which is a subscale of nurse-patient interaction, is examined. Methods: The study is cross-sectional and complementary research. The research environment consisted of nurses caring for psychiatry patients in all the public hospitals with psychiatry wards in Izmir and Manisa (n=291). The study sample was not determined. The participants were 112 nurses who were at work on the dates of the research and agreed to participate. Data were collected through the Nurse Introductory Information Form, Caring Nurse-Patient Interaction Scale, and Spiritual Perception of Support Scale. Descriptive statistics (mean, number and percentage distribution), and the Kruskall Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Pearson Correlation analysis were used to evaluate the collected data. Results: The mean scores average points nurses giving care for psychiatry patients obtained on the Caring Nurse-Patient Interaction Scale was 313.08 +/- 30.45 for the importance aspect, 283.79 +/- 37.43 for the competence aspect, and 268.01 +/- 47.65 for the feasibility aspect. Statistically significant differences were found for some distinctive features, such as level of education, hiring institution, awareness of the integrated care definition, and importance-competence-feasibility aspects of caring nurse-patient interactions. There was a positive correlation between spiritual perception of support and the importance, competence, and feasibility aspects of caring nurse-patient interactions (r=0.41, 0.35, 035, respectively, p<0.05). Conclusion: Nurses providing care for psychiatry patients recognized the importance of caring nurse-patient interaction; however, their self-perception was that the importance they attached to this interaction was still inadequate.