Violence is a growing psychosocial problem in the health care working environment. Literature shows that nurses are physically assaulted, threatened, and verbally abused more often than other professionals. However, some nurses are able to relate to clients in a way that produces positive resolution. This study explored the phenomenon of positive encounters with aggressive and violent clients. Guided by a phenomenological method, data were analyzed within a lifeworld perspective. The essential meaning of the phenomenon of caregivers' experiences of encountering violent clients is described as an "embodied moment," which is explicated by seven themes of meaning, "respecting one's fear and respecting the client," "touch," "dialogue," "situated knowledge," "stability," "mutual regard," and "pliability." The authors discuss the meaning of the outcome and propose both theory and praxis-oriented activities toward decreasing aggression and violence in health care.
A majority of women in Sweden initiate breastfeeding but almost a quarter stop or wean the infant in the first few weeks after birth because of difficulties. In order to develop care that facilitates initiation of breastfeeding and enables mothers to realize their expectations concerning breastfeeding, it is necessary to understand what having severe breastfeeding difficulties means for women who experience them. The aim of this study is to describe the lived experiences of initiating breastfeeding under severe difficulties. A reflective lifeworld research design was used. Eight women, seven primiparous and one multipara, were interviewed within 2 months of giving birth. The essential meaning of the phenomenon is described as “Existential lostness as a mother forcing oneself into a constant fight”. This pattern is further explicated through its constituents; shattered expectations, a lost time for closeness, being of no use to the infant, being forced to expose oneself, and gaining strength through sharing. The results show that mothers with severe breastfeeding difficulties feel alone and exposed because of their suffering and are lost in motherhood. Thus, adequate care for mothers should enhance the forming of a caring relationship through sharing rather than exposing.
This article focuses on patients' violence against caregivers. Several studies show that violence and threats within the health care setting are an increasing problem. Encounters that become violent have been the issue of many debates but the phenomenon is still not fully understood. It is important to understand the course of events in violent encounters, both for the sake of the patients and the caregivers' well-being. The aim of this study was to describe the essence of violent encounters, as experienced by nine patients within psychiatric care. Guided by a phenomenological method, data were analyzed within a reflective life-world approach. The findings explicate violent encounters characterized by a tension between "authentic personal" and "detached impersonal" caring. "Authentic personal" patients are encountered in an undisguised, straightforward, and open way, and they sense unrestricted respect that caregivers would show another human being. In these encounters violence does not develop well. However, in caring that is "detached impersonal," the encounters are experienced by the patients as uncontrolled and insecure. These encounters are full of risks and potential violence.
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