Panoptic Power and Mental Health Nursing—Space and Surveillance in Relation to Staff, Patients, and Neutral Places

Abstract

Mental health nurses use manifest and latent approaches for surveillance and observation of patients in the context of mental health care. Patient spaces in mental health organizations are subtly linked to these different means of surveillance. This article investigates these approaches, focusing in particular on the variety of spaces patients occupy and differences in the intensity of observation that can be carried out in them. The aim is to elaborate on space and surveillance in relation to the patients' and nurses' environment in psychiatric nursing care. Places where patients were observed were operationalized and categorized, yielding three spaces: those for patients, those for staff, and neutral areas. We demonstrate that different spaces produce different practices in relation to the exercise of panoptic power and that there is room for maneuvering and engaging in alternatives to "keeping an eye on patients" for nurses in mental health nursing. Some spaces offer asylum from panoptic observations and the viewing eyes of psychiatric nurses, but the majority of spaces in mental health nursing serve as a field of visibility within which the patient is constantly watched.

Practical compassions: repertoires of practice and compassion talk in acute mental healthcare

“…While the lack of compassion is often formulated as a personal or interpersonal failing, a key sociological insight is that healthcare – especially mental healthcare – can be seen as an exercise in power. In academic circles this has frequently taken its cue from Michel Foucault () where authors argue that mental healthcare is a space for the surveillance and negative typification of disempowered individuals (Salzmann‐Erikson and Erikson ). Despite recent interest in user participation there is a concern that the power structures have not been genuinely subverted (Bennetts et al .…”

Reconciling concepts of space and person‐centred care of the older person with cognitive impairment in the acute care setting

“…According to Andrews (), we have entered postmedical era of qualitative health geography associated with complementary quantitative approaches in which space is considered multidimensional, contestable, and comprised of having different meanings to different groups. Similarly, nurse researchers have highlighted the complexity and relationality of space as it pertains to care and caring by problematizing medical and managerialist paradigms impacting on spaces of care (McMahon, ; Purkis, ; Liaschenko, ; Andrews, ; Barnes & Rudge, ; Andes & Shattell, ; Salzmann‐Erikson & Eriksson, ).…”

Ständig tillsyn — en kvalificerad vårdhandling inom psykiatrisk vård

“…Att vara konstant övervakad kan dock upplevas som kränkande för patienten. Därför är det väsentligt att inom psykiatrisk vård utveckla bra metoder för ständig tillsyn (5).…”

“…Ständig tillsyn kan också ordineras för att förhindra att medpatienter eller personal skadas, eller för att patienten är så psykotisk eller akut förvirrad att det är olämpligt att vara ensam. Frekvensen och omfattningen av ständig tillsyn varierar dock stort mellan olika psykiatriska vårdinrättningar (3,5,6,7).…”