| Description |
A categorization of the behavior of psychiatric nurses formulated by Charlotte Schwartz, William Stephenson and Morris B. Parloff was investigated as to its adequateness for classifying a selected sample of incidents of psychiatric nurse behavior. The author proposed the hypothesis that additional categories would be needed in order to have a complete picture of the ongoing patterns of behavior in nurse-patient interactions. The Schwartz categorization included interventions by the nurse aimed at meeting a patient's physical needs and promoting his physical well being, meeting the emotional needs of a patient, upholding social standards, both cultural and ward and noninterventions reflecting respect for the patient's autonomy and integrity or due to the nurse's aversion to or intolerance of a patient's behavior. In the present study a category was provided for incidents not falling into the five Schwartz categories but no attempt was made to determine specifically what additional categories might be needed. A review of literature failed to reveal any other research into the categorization of the behavior of psychiatric nurses although articles have been written which suggest 37 additional categories such as meeting the patient's social needs, giving information to the patient, managing and supervising the patient's environment and gathering data about the patient. Some authors have cited examples of how the nurse may interact with a patient to meet her own needs, but no published study was found which indicated that categories of this particular nature have been used in classifying the actual behavior of nurses in nurse-patient interactions. In carrying out this investigation it was necessary to find some criteria for delineating a nurse-patient incident. Exploration of the literature did not reveal any tool that could be used for this purpose; therefore, a pilot study was conducted in order to develop a means for delineating incidents. To answer the question, Are categories other than the five set forth by Schwartz, Stephenson, and Parloff necessary in order to have a more complete categorization of the behavior of psychiatric nurses as they interact with patients?", 273 incidents of behavior were delineated from nurse-patient interaction recordings made by graduate psychiatric nurses. Five Judges were asked to use the Schwartz, et al., categories labeled A, B, C, D, and E, and an additional category, labeled F, to classify these incidents. |
