Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Mental Health Initiatives for Adults
She Provided the Platform, the Space: Mental Health Patients' Experiences of Being Understood
Mona Shattell, PhD, RN, School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC, USA, Beverly Hogan, MSN, RN, CS, School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA, Sara McAllister, RN, BS, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital, Birmingham, AL, USA, and Sandra P. Thomas, RN, PhD, FAAN, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA.
Learning Objective #1: Describe ways nurses can better understand persons with mental illness.
Learning Objective #2: Discuss what it means to persons with mental illness to truly be understood.
Significance: The nurse-patient relationship is foundational to psychiatric/mental health nursing. Research has shown that understanding has a significant influence on nurse-patient interaction and that people with mental illness often do not feel understood by their mental health care providers.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of being understood by persons with mental illness.  

Design: Existential phenomenology.

Sample: Participants included 20 individuals living in the community who self-identified as having one or more mental illnesses.

Method: This study was conducted within the tradition of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. Nondirective, in-depth interviews were conducted, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed for themes.

Findings: Against the ground of misunderstanding and stigmatization, the experience of being understood was expressed in three figural themes: “I was important,” “it really made us connect,” and “they got on my level.” 

Some of the findings challenge a number of longstanding thoughts about therapeutic communication and the nurse-patient relationship.

Understanding meant being treated as a human being. Persons with mental illness wanted someone to listen to them; however, listening alone was not enough. Conclusions: Participants did not describe the experience of being understood without also describing experiences of being misunderstood. Aspects of misunderstanding and stigmatization included vulnerability, loneliness and isolation. The experience of being understood made individuals feel important in a world that often disregarded them by putting them into the “do not count category.”

Implications: Findings from this study contribute to the limited body of knowledge on what it means to be understood and provide data for further research on interventions to enhance understanding and connection to persons with mental illness. Nurses can use this knowledge to develop deeper understandings and create more meaningful therapeutic relationships.

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See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)