“They’re Really PD Today”

Abstract

The therapeutic relationship is of particular importance when working with patients with antisocial personality disorder, but despite this, there is a paucity of literature exploring student nurses' perceptions of developing a therapeutic relationship with such patients. Hence, this qualitative study explored the perceptions of second-year mental health nursing students of developing a therapeutic relationship with this patient group. Student nurses from a University in the Northwest of England participated in two focus groups, to compare the perceptions of a group of student nurses who had experience in secure settings (forensic hospital) with those who had not. Four key themes emerged: diagnosis, safety, engagement, and finally environmental influences. Both groups commented on looking beyond the diagnosis and seeing the person. The student nurses cited other staff in their clinical placement areas as hugely influential in terms of the development of their perceptions of patients with antisocial personality disorder and how to relate to them.

Exploring the therapeutic relationship in nursing theory and practice

“…It can be tempting to attempt to make the therapeutic relationship more honest and open by using selfdisclosure -that is, the sharing of one's own experiences with service users -which can create a sense of shared experience and identification. There are examples where a degree of self-disclosure has been shown to enable nurses to connect with service users because they share certain interests (Wright and Jones 2012) or simply because they talk about 'normal stuff' (Jones and Wright 2017). Unhjem et al (2018) found that the overarching reason why nurses shared their own experiences was because it felt natural to respond to service users' questions.…”

Nurses' Perspectives of Factors That Influence Therapeutic Relationships in Secure Inpatient Forensic Hospitals

“…Day and colleagues note that in the early 2000s negative descriptions such as 'manipulative' were voiced, however by 2015 descriptions had shifted to more treatment focussed and skills based, including expressing empathy. Despite this identified attitudinal improvement, it is clear that there remains a need for thorough, rigorous and methodologically sound research if a fuller understanding of forensic mental health nurses attitudes and actions towards people with BPD, and other personality disorders, such as Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD) (Jones & Wright, 2015), is achieved. Such research can also identify evidence-based steps to preserve the integrity of the therapeutic relationship with those people who have personality disorders.…”