P123 | General nurses’ feelings and difficulties in caring for psychiatric patients: a qualitative study

I. Piras¹, G. Ibba², G. Piras³, F. Floris⁴, M. Galletta⁴ | ¹Clinical Trials Sector, General Affairs, ‘A. Cao’ Microcythemic Hospital, ASL Cagliari, ²University Degree in Nursing, University of Cagliari, ³Sardinia Regional Health Emergency Service, Cagliari, ⁴Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, Italy

Premises and Purpose of the study: The care of people with mental health problems can be difficult when provided outside a specialist setting. The aim of this study was to explore feelings and difficulties of general care nurses in managing patients with mental disease during inpatient care.
Materials and Methods: The study was carried out by using a semi-structured interview with 12 nurses from general hospital wards in southern Italy who had experience of caring for psychiatric patients in their wards. The interviews were conducted by telephone or face-to-face between April 2023 and September 2023 and were recorded with the consent of the participants. The data collected were transcribed and analyzed.
Results: The data show that the respondents are evenly distributed by gender and half are over 50 years old. Seven nurses (58.3%) work in medical wards. Fears and anxieties about possible aggressive episodes during care and a sense of inadequate competence in relation to the psychiatric patient emerged from the narratives. Professionals reported difficulties in their care management. They believe that such patients need for more empathy, listening and family support, and they report that they lack the necessary training to manage them well during hospitalization. Several of them would like to be able to consult a mental health nurse specialist.
Conclusions: General care nurses experience negative emotions when taking care of psychiatric patients. Special training and teams of mental health nurses could support them during the psychiatric patient’s hospitalization.