Patients' Expressed Nursing Care Needs in a Forensic Psychiatric Setting

The aim of this study was to describe the patients' nursing care needs in a forensic psychiatric setting in line with the NANDA-I classification. Ten patients sentenced to forensic psychiatric care were interviewed. Data were analyzed by means of directed content analysis with a deductive approach, where we used "served time" as a factor in the analysis, thus creating three categories: newly arrived patients with a length of stay of only a couple of years, patients with a length of stay of around 5 years, and patients with a length of stay of more than 5 years. Thirteen NANDA-I diagnoses were identified during the analyses, distributed on seven different domains. When distributing the given NANDA-I diagnoses according to the created categories, an explanatory pattern emerged, and three themes became apparent: denial, insight, and listlessness. Considering the differences in views, the patients' own recognition of what is a problem, a potential, or a risk could improve a "working relation" and, eventually, a recovery. NANDA-I nursing diagnoses may improve individualized and person-centered care as NANDA-I makes care continuously consistent over time.