Patients’ feelings about ward nursing regimes and involvement in rule construction

This study compared two acute psychiatric ward nursing regimes, focusing on ward rules as a means of investigating the relationship between the flexibility/inflexibility of the regimes and patient outcomes. Previous studies identified an association between ward rules and patient aggression. A link between absconding and nurses’ attitudes towards rule enforcement has also been explored. However, an in-depth exploration of ward rules from the perspective of nurses and patients had not been undertaken previously. The study aimed to discover the content of rules within acute psychiatric wards; to explore patients’ responses to the rules; to evaluate the impact of rules and rule enforcement on nurse–patient relationships and on ward events; and to investigate the relationship between ward rules, ward atmosphere and ward design. The relevance of sociological theory emerged from the data analysis. During this process, the results were moved up to another conceptual level to represent the meaning of lived experience at the level of theory. For example, nurses’ descriptions of their feelings in relation to rule enforcement were merged as role ambivalence. This concept was supported by examples from the transcripts. Other possible explanations for the data and the connections between them were checked by returning to each text unit in the cluster and ensuring that it fitted with the emergent theory. The design centred on a comparative interview study of 30 patients and 30 nurses within two acute psychiatric wards in different hospitals. Non-participant observations provided a context for the interview data. Measures of the Ward Atmosphere Scale, the Hospital-Hostel Practices Profile, ward incidents and levels of as required (PRN) medication were obtained. The analysis of the quantitative data was assisted by SPSS, and the qualitative analysis by QSR *NUDIST. Thematic and interpretative phenomenological methods were used in the analysis of the qualitative data. A series of 11 interrelated concepts emerged from an analysis of the data, and a synthesis of the main themes. This paper focuses on the results and recommendations that emerged from the quantitative and qualitative patient data. A further paper will focus on nurses’ perceptions of the same topics