Family Experience with Mental Illness and Psychiatric Nursing

[eaddg1]

Hey folks,

I'm a newbie on here, but I come with a very important question (or at least very important for me). For a Theory and Research paper I am currently studying towards, I am conducting a literature review and critical analysis of arguments - culminating in an essay and formulation of recommendations - into the experience had by student nurse of mental illness with a family member, and thus how they respond to mental health clinical placements. My formal question is as follows:

"Is there a relationship between student nurses' lived experience of a family member with mental illness and the responses had on, or how they respond to, mental health clinical placements"

I am a student nurse myself and am in this exact position, hence my drive to learn whether there are any trends related to this and what studies have been conducted. In addition, I would like to look into how this manifests itself on placement (i.e. becoming over-involved in patients' care, crying often/ getting easily flustered, etc); if there is a drive to get into mental health nursing as a profession in light of the lived experiences (or vice versa); and also whether this lived experience, placement experience, and consequential stress can lead to the development of mental illness in previously asymptomatic individuals. I am open to further suggestions of sub-topics.

I guess why I am here is to, A) get some stories from nurses themselves who may be in a similar situation; and B) ask if anyone has any great articles (preferably within the last 10 years) or literature they know of that is on this or similar topics... I am a wee bit stuck for information at present. Much appreciated wonderful nursing people!!

Kind regards

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

Lived experience can certainly help in the general knowledge one would need for a clinical placement in a specialty. With that being said, however, it is always important to not let one's own experiences, judgments nor preconceived notions dictate plan of care.

Every patient with mental illness, even with the same diagnosis presents in different ways--meaning the symptoms may be similar, but the manifestation is very complex.

Remember, just because someone is mentally ill doesn't mean they are not intelligent. Some freakishly brilliant. So with each patient it is a brand new day, and you can't take your experiences and make decisions based on them for every patient with depression or schizophrenia or the personality disordered. Not to mention medications to treat will not affect two different patients the exact same way.

It is a specialty in nursing that is not an exact science.

And the clinical placement part--most people who are mentally ill need to have a goal of independent, assisted or family living. Dependent on needs of patient, and availability of placements. Just because someone's brother "mooches off Mom" or "disrupts the household" doesn't mean that is a standard.

States Department of Mental Illness has group homes as an option-any number of which work well for some patients.

Just some general musings. Perhaps focus your paper on family dynamics vs. a group home setting. Which in the best interest of the patient?

[elkpark]

I guess why I am here is to, A) get some stories from nurses themselves who may be in a similar situation; and B) ask if anyone has any great articles (preferably within the last 10 years) or literature they know of that is on this or similar topics... I am a wee bit stuck for information at present. Much appreciated wonderful nursing people!!

Kind regards

I can see coming here and asking about people's experiences with family members with psychiatric issues, but a large part of the point of your assignment is to learn how to do a lit search. Has that not been discussed in your Theory and Research class? Asking a group of random strangers, even a v. large group of random strangers, if they have any good articles, is not how it's done.

I had an aunt who was chronically mentally ill and in and out of psychiatric units and the state hospital the entire time I was growing up, and my parents were v. involved with her and my cousins (her children). I wouldn't say that's the reason I became interested in psychiatric nursing, but I certainly came to nursing school with more exposure to and familiarity with mental illness and the mental health system than most of my classmates, and I know that watching her suffer and struggle over the years had an impact on me.

Best wishes!

[eaddg1]

I can see coming here and asking about people's experiences with family members with psychiatric issues, but a large part of the point of your assignment is to learn how to do a lit search. Has that not been discussed in your Theory and Research class? Asking a group of random strangers, even a v. large group of random strangers, if they have any good articles, is not how it's done.

I fully acknowledge where you are coming from, and I do not expect to get all my information through passively chucking it out to an open forum. No, I am coming here mainly in the hope of finding out people's experiences, seeing if they align with my own so I can make recommendations that are not solely biased due to my own experience with an unwell parent, and so putting my feelers out re. others' knowledge of articles is only secondary. I do know how to conduct a lit. search and review, and I am fully aware of that being one of the components of this assignment, but the main focus is on using found literature to reinforce my argument, ergo by asking around, I was hoping I could be pointed in the right direction if I was to be going off in a tangent. Even one good article, I would imagine, would give me a place to go for further literature/ info.

Yes, having this lived experience can indeed set you ahead of class mates when beginning, but I have found that my own has led me to dislike this field of nursing, where other's experience has been the driving force behind their journey into psychiatric nursing. It is an interesting one!

Thanks for your help

[dishes, BSN, RN]

I think working with patients who have the same illnesses as family members could put a health care worker at higher risk of compassion fatigue.

[dishes, BSN, RN]

I am very analytical so I would avoid doing a paper solely from a lived experience perspective, it's too easy to get bogged down in that type of paper. I would do it as a both; a reflection on my personal response during the psychiatric clinical placement and on the subject of compassion fatigue as an occupational hazard in nursing. I would define compassion fatigue, identify the risks, the signs and symptoms, strategies to reduce it and how to build resilience. I would look at Francoise Mathieus articles on the subject to start.

[eaddg1]

Thank you so much for your help. Yes, I agree, too easy to get bogged down on the personal element and so be unable to write an objective research paper. I have now changed my focus, so not mental health related any more (due to an absence of literature and it being too personal).

[dishes, BSN, RN]

I am curious, what is your focus now?

[eaddg1]

Something around the use of clinical reasoning, clinical judgement, and clinical decision-making in nursing. I think my question will be on the following:

P = RNs

E/ I = Medical/ Surgical Nursing (i.e. in a hospital)

C = N/A (or, mainly, how nurses go about doing it and why (i.e. it's benefits and the process behind it)

O = Ways in which nurses think and how this leads to clinical judgments and the process of making clinical decisions

T = may not apply... N/A?

Rolling with my original topic, while very interesting and applicable to me, was getting nowhere and I was getting flustered and unable to make sense of what I was doing. So a change in topic was needed, and I found a great article which has led me to this new focus. Plus the article explains nursing in a way that I completely agree with.