How do nurses experience working with adolescents with a diagnosis of 'personality disorder' or 'emerging personality disorder'?

摘要

Nurses are less sympathetic to patients with a diagnosis of Personality Disorder' (PD') and there is disagreement about whether the diagnosis can be applied to children and young people. What this paper adds to existing knowledge. We examined the experiences of nurses working with adolescents with a diagnosis of PD'. Six nurses were interviewed and we analysed the data using an approach that focussed on experiences. We found two themes. One concerned the emotional impact of working with these young people and the other the ways in which this affected the dynamics of the clinical team. Many of the experiences and wishes of the participants, such as anger, feeling unskilled and wanting training, are similar to those of nurses working with adults with PD'. Others appear to be more pronounced in this setting, particularly lack of certainty surrounding diagnosis, the dilemmas this raises in providing a service and the difficult interpersonal dynamics in the nurse-patient relationship.