[A program to facilitate quality of work-life of psychiatric nurses]

The aim of this study was to describe guidelines for a personal and professional development programme to facilitate the quality of work-life experienced by psychiatric nurses in a hospital. An explorative and descriptive research design with a qualitative research orientation was employed. The study was divided into three phases. In phase one the needs, desires and expectations of psychiatric nursing in a hospital nursing service were explored and described. In phase two the factors in a nursing service which influence the quality work-life of nurses, were explored and described. Consequently, the last phase of the study was conducted, being inferred from data of phases one and two which lead to the conceptual framework upon which the guidelines and programme are based. A personal and professional development programme for psychiatric nurses to facilitate quality of work-life experienced, consisting of three parts, was described to enclose aspects of the psychiatric nurse's internal and external environments, as well as patterns of interaction between the internal and external environments.