Collaboration between mental health consumers and nurses: shared understandings, dissimilar experiences

Adopting a collaborative approach within clinical relationships is illustrative of consumers' and nurses' positive beliefs, values, and attitudes towards each other and their partnership. However, for collaboration to be successful, how roles are determined, how each partner relates to the other, and how decisions are to be made need to be clearly defined and agreed upon. The research study described here utilized a mixed-method approach comprising focus groups and surveys to explore the subjective understandings, attitudes, and experiences of consumer-nurse collaboration within a mental health rehabilitation context in order to more clearly determine the conditions for successful nurse-consumer collaboration. The study found that although consumers and nurses conceptualized collaboration in similar ways, their lived experiences were disparate. A key finding of the study was that mutual recognition of each others' knowledge and expertise is needed for successful collaboration. The study reinforced the need for consumers and nurses to establish common ground on which to collaborate and to articulate the behaviours and expectations of working collaboratively. While collaboration was acknowledged as a significant and desirable basis for therapeutic relationships, it was challenged by determinants of power, such as knowledge, information, and expertise.