Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Educators’ Perceptions of Teaching Dissociative Disorders: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Although the prevalence of dissociative disorders (DDs) is up to 10 percent of the general population, psychiatric-mental health (PMH) registered nurses lack education on how to care for individuals diagnosed with these disorders. METHOD Sixty-two PMH nurse educators completed an anonymous online survey about their perceptions of teaching DDs to nursing students. Braun and Clarke’s six-phase framework was used to conduct an inductive, reflexive thematic analysis of the data. RESULTS Three primary themes were identified: lack of resources, differing opinions on the value of teaching DDs, and stigma. CONCLUSION Though roughly 75 percent of participants reported that they teach DDs to their nursing students, they endorsed concerning misperceptions about the diagnoses. By failing to properly educate future PMH RNs about DDs, individuals with DDs are at risk of receiving inadequate and inappropriate nursing care and experiencing poor outcomes.