Categorizing "frequent visitors" in the psychiatric emergency room: a semistructured interview study

Area of Science:

• Psychiatric Nursing
• Emergency Medicine
• Social Constructionism

Background:

• Frequent visitors in psychiatric emergency rooms can cause nurse demoralization.
• Understanding nurse perceptions of frequent visitors is crucial for improving care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore how nurses categorize frequent visitors in psychiatric emergency settings.
• To gain insight into the factors influencing nurse perceptions of frequent visitors.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study involving interviews with eleven nurses.
• Analysis of nurse categorizing practices through a social constructionist lens.

Main Results:

• Nurses did not categorize frequent visitors as inherently unlikeable or difficult.
• Difficulty was associated with visitor actions that obstructed patient flow or poor nurse-visitor rapport.
• Categorization was context-dependent, not solely based on visit frequency.

Conclusions:

• Nurse perceptions of frequent visitors are nuanced and context-specific.
• Focusing on visitor behavior and nurse-visitor relationships can mitigate negative perceptions.
• Findings challenge assumptions about inherent difficulties with frequent psychiatric emergency room visitors.