A survey of the knowledge, experience and attitudes of Irish psychiatric nurses regarding clients diagnosed with borderline personality disorder / thesis by Philip D. James

摘要

The aim of this research was to gauge the knowledge, experience andudattitudes of Irish psychiatric nurses towards clients with a diagnosis ofudBorderline Personality Disorder. It also hoped to elicit the opinions ofudthese nurses concerning the care and service delivered to these clients andudhow it might be improved. A quantitative survey was employed, using anudadapted version of a previously tested questionnaire. All nurses workingudin a clinical role (n=157) within one psychiatric service in the Republic ofudIreland were posted a copy of the questionnaire, of which 65 wereudreturned yielding a response rate 41.4%. The results indicate that attitudesudtowards working with clients with Borderline Personality Disorder areudpositive, but practically all staff perceive them as a difficult clientudpopulation to work with. Staff knowledge is reasonable but communityudstaff appear to have higher knowledge levels than inpatient staff. Theudmajority of respondents believe that the care currently delivered to theseudclients is inadequate for a variety of reasons and believe that agreedudtreatment protocols and the establishment of a specialist service forudBorderline Personality Disorder are required in order to provide adequateudcare. The author discusses the findings and concludes that the healthudservices need to rethink the care they offer to clients with BorderlineudPersonality Disorder if best practice is to be achieved. Also, staff workingudwith these clients require appropriate support, supervision and education.