THE POTENTIAL FOR EMPOWERMENT IN FIVE NURSE-PATIENT RELATIONSHIPS IN PSYCHIATRY.
Contributors: University of Illinois at Chicago.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 147
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Women's Studies.
Description: A qualitative, narrative approach was used in this feminist study to elucidate three dimensions of psychiatric nurse-patient relationship important to the relationship's potential to facilitate the empowerment of nurse and patient. Five female nurse-patient dyads participated, three from an in-patient setting, and two from an out-patient clinic. Both settings were part of the same metropolitan, university medical center. The dyads were selected to reflect the presence of women's issues or concerns, shown in the literature to predispose to a need for empowerment. Interviews were semi-structured and audiotaped. Each participant completed one individual interview and one joint interview with the other member of her dyad.

Analysis of interview texts yielded interpretations that told the stories of the participants' relationships with each other. The participants' relationships were characterized by unequal distributions of power, lack of attention to empowerment, and absence of mutual goal setting between nurse and patient. Multiple aspects of the settings made the processes of relationship and empowerment difficult for participants, including short length of stay, high patient acuity, cuts in staffing, and nurses' conflicting obligations. The findings reaffirmed the potential for women's powerlessness in psychiatry, their need for empowerment, and demonstrated the magnitude of forces constraining relationship and empowerment efforts in psychiatric treatment settings. Suggestions for research and clinical education that address these areas were developed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: B, page: 2477.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, 1996.

School code: 0799.