[Interactions between nurses and patients--a classical study in acute psychiatry]

This is a classical contact and interaction study of psychiatric nursing in a Scottish teaching hospital in the 1960s which in the meantime has lost none of its validity and relevance for psychiatric nursing practice. Its aim was to examine interactive processes and to elucidate the meaning of a nurse-patient relationship by way of non-participant observation, protocols, and interviews with patients and nurses. Data were obtained from 113 patients and 40 nurses of four admission wards in 16 weeks of observation which totalled 152 hours. Interviews were held with 99 patients and 37 nurses. Interaction patterns of nurses and patients were correlated with diagnosis, age, length of hospital stay and social class. Twelve "pairs" were found where the patient and the nurse were conscious of a special relationship between them. Generally the analysis did not discover that nurses had a conceptual basis to examine the purpose of interactions and relationships. A significant result of this study was that 41.6% of all patients who mainly suffered from depressive illnesses had no individual contact with nurses at all. Another result showed changing interaction patterns with a very rapid decrease in interaction rates after a short stay in hospital.