Experiences of nurses caring for HIV positive mental health care users within the psychiatric unit

Abstract: Caring for Mental Health Care users (MHCUs) has always been a challenge and requires expert knowledge, skills, intuition, feeling and empathy. The HIV pandemic brought even more challenges to psychiatric nursing. As a result, the objectives of this study are to: Explore and describe the lived experiences of nurses caring for HIV positive Mental Health Care Users (MHCUs) within the psychiatric unit, in order to describe guidelines to facilitate the mental health of psychiatric nurses. This study was undertaken within the framework of nursing for the whole person (University of Johannesburg, 2010:2-14). A person functions in an integrated bio-psychosocial manner. To achieve his/her quest for wholeness, a person interacts with his/her internal and external environments holistically. A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual research design was used and the research was carried out in two phases. Phase 1 focused on an exploration of the lived experiences of nurses caring for HIV positive MHCUs in a psychiatric unit. Phase 2 focused on guidelines to facilitate the mental health of psychiatric nurses. Purposive sampling was employed in selecting participants for the research study. The criteria were: Professional nurses caring for HIV positive MHCUs within the psychiatric unit in a general hospital in Gauteng Province for at least six months. Data were collected using phenomenological interviews, naïve sketches, observational notes and field notes and data saturation was reached with a sample of eight psychiatric nurse‟s interviews. Permission to conduct this study was granted by the authorities at the provincial office and also by the participants. Tesch‟s method of data analysis was applied to analyse the data. Themes and categories were identified and a consensus was reached with the independent coder. Measures to ensure trustworthiness were considered and the criteria for ensuring rigour included the truth value, applicability, consistency, beneficence and justice to protect the human participants...M.Cur. (Nursing