A model for culture-congruent psychiatric nursing

The purpose of the research conducted was to explore and describe the influence of culture on approaches to mental illness and the patients' compliance with psychiatric treatment, and to generate a practice model for culture-congruent psychiatric nursing from which guidelines were described. The Nursing for the Whole Person Theory was used as the paradigm. The research method followed three phases--each addressing a different objective. Firstly, explanatory, descriptive research was conducted to compile explanatory case studies reflecting cultural approaches to mental illness and the patients' compliance with psychiatric treatment. The sample consisted of four psychiatric patients purposively selected from four long-term wards of a psychiatric hospital, a group of psychiatric nurses, and the psychiatrists treating each of these patients based on information obtained from the semi-structured interviews, field notes and the patients' clinical documents. From the results of the case studies a practice model for culture-congruent psychiatric nursing was generated using Chinn and Kramer's approach as framework and the major concept "negotiation". Guidelines for a culture-congruent approach in psychiatric nursing were compiled from the model using deductive reasoning and analysis.