Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 3 of 3
Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
How Patients And Nurses Experience The Acute Care Psychiatric Environment, Mona Shattell, Melanie Andes, Sandra Thomas
How Patients And Nurses Experience The Acute Care Psychiatric Environment, Mona Shattell, Melanie Andes, Sandra Thomas
Mona Shattell
The concept of the therapeutic milieu was developed when patients’ hospitalizations were long, medications were few, and one-to-one nurse-patient interactions were the norm. However, it is not clear how the notion of “therapeutic milieu” is experienced in American acute psychiatric environments today. This phenomenological study explored the experience of patients and nurses in an acute care psychiatric unit in the United States (US), by asking them, “What stands out to you about this psychiatric hospital environment?” Three figural themes emerged, contextualized by time, which was a source of stress to both groups: for patients there was boredom, and for nurses, …
An Exploration Of The Meanings Of Space And Place In Acute Psychiatric Care, Melanie Andes, Mona Shattell
An Exploration Of The Meanings Of Space And Place In Acute Psychiatric Care, Melanie Andes, Mona Shattell
Mona Shattell
Spatial human experiences such as confinement and freedom are important to acute psychiatric care. The physical space that inpatient psychiatric/mental health nurses and acute psychiatric patients share influences human relationships. The purpose of this paper is to explore the meanings of space and place in acute psychiatric settings, to discuss how these meanings affect human relationships, nurses’ work environment and patients’ perception of care, and to present how the design and use of nursing stations affects therapeutic relationships. We hope to encourage dialogue and research that will help clarify the meaning of space and place in acute care psychiatric units, …
What’S Therapeutic About The Therapeutic Milieu?, Sandra Thomas, Mona Shattell, Tracey Martin
What’S Therapeutic About The Therapeutic Milieu?, Sandra Thomas, Mona Shattell, Tracey Martin
Mona Shattell
While the milieu of an inpatient facility is considered a treatment modality, extant literature focuses on the staff’s role in creating the milieu rather than the patient’s perception of it. Not since Goffman’s Asylums (1961) has there been an in-depth examination of the phenomenal world of the hospitalized psychiatric patient. In this study, eight inpatients (ages 23 to 58) on the acute psychiatric unit of a metropolitan general hospital participated in phenomenological interviews about their experience of the environment. The essential meaning of the hospital was refuge from selfdestructiveness. Prominent aspects of patients’ experience within the place of refuge were …