| Author: | Tsang, Yat Kwan Alan |
| Title: | Psychological adjustment to violence : a grounded theory study of newly graduated mental health nurses in Hong Kong |
| Advisors: | Chan, Angela E. (SN) Mok, Esther (SN) |
| Degree: | DHSc |
| Year: | 2015 |
| Subject: | Psychiatric nurses -- China -- Hong Kong -- Psychology. Violence in psychiatric hospitals. Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Faculty of Health and Social Sciences |
| Pages: | xii, 219 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The aim of this study was to determine how newly graduated mental health nurses adjust psychologically to adapt and cope with violence from psychiatric patients. A constructivist grounded theory approach was employed to guide the study. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 14 mental health nurses who had three years or less of post-registration clinical experience. A substantive theoretical framework on Restoring Well-being was conceptualised from constant comparative analysis and memo writing. The framework uncovers the psychological adjustment of newly graduated mental health nurses to patient violence. Restoring Well-being is an ongoing and continuous process by which the mental health nurses strive to use active and adaptive coping strategies to resolve the psychological stress arising from violent encounters, thus restoring and maintaining their psychological well-being. The process of restoring well-being involves four stages, namely, Alarm, Struggling, Resilience, and Recuperating, and is a journey of forward and backward passage. It requires the novice mental health nurses to use various ongoing behavioural, emotional, and cognitive strategies to adapt and cope with the dynamic and complex nature of patient violence. The use of these strategies is influenced by personal, interpersonal, and institutional variables. The progression across the four stages is influenced by how long a mental health nurse has been a qualified nurse, and how he or she has learned and internalised the essence of managing violence. The implications for nursing education and practice are discussed. Nursing faculties, nurse administrators, and managers should attend to the violence-related training needs of mental health nursing students, and provide psychological preparation and support during and after exposure to violence. Future longitudinal research is recommended to investigate the psychological adjustment of mental health nurses to patient violence after their three-year post-registration clinical experience. Moreover, the theoretical framework may be used in future studies with large samples to develop instruments for empirically evaluating psychological adjustment to patient violence. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
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| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b2961708x.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 2.39 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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