Being an outsider: nurses’ statements about a vignette of an elderly resident with a schizophrenia diagnosis and dementia behaviour

• Published in: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
• Main Authors: HELLZÉN, O., KRISTIANSEN, L., NORBERGH, K. G.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2004
• Subjects: Northern Sweden
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2003.00711.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1365-2850.2003.00711.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2003.00711.x

In an exploratory study of nurses’ approach to elderly people with a diagnosis of long‐term schizophrenia, the aim was to investigate nurses’ views of the care of an elderly fictitious person with long‐term schizophrenia. All the nurses in one municipality in northern Sweden working at seven different units were investigated. A vignette, which was based on a case description in a previous study of an 84‐year‐old woman with severe dementia and problematic behaviour, was used after a minor alteration. In this study, the woman's age in the case description was changed from 84 to 68 years and the diagnosis was changed from severe dementia to long‐term schizophrenia; otherwise, the description was the same as in the original case. The main finding was the nurses’ inability to see the resident as anything other than what the ‘label’, the diagnosis, said. The nurses are interpreted as being caught in a dilemma of loyalty – on the one hand, the loyalty to the organization with its traditional goals and means and, on the other hand, the loyalty to the resident with her wishes in the forefront of their minds.