Abstract:
New Zealand has one of the highest suicide rates in the world and mental health nurses
are the most likely professionals to assess a person presenting with suicidal ideation.
Managing a suicidal crisis is acknowledged as being one of the most difficult and
frightening challenges facing mental health professionals.
This research aimed to have mental health nurses who work in acute mental health
settings describe the impact that working with people experiencing suicidal ideation has
on their personal and professional lives.
This study followed the tenets of fundamental qualitative description as presented by
Sandelowski (2000). Five mental health nurses participated in individual semi
structured interviews. The data collected under-went systematic thematic analysis and
the extracted findings were presented as a straight description.
The findings from this study revealed that personal philosophies of care, the work place
culture, organisational and professional expectations and their personal concepts about
suicide all influenced the experiences of these participants. Mental exhaustion, tension
and feelings of isolation and alienation from family and society were universal
experiences.
Two recommendations have been made based on the insights gained from this research.
These are; tertiary institutions should offer post graduate studies on the subject of
suicide as it relates to mental health nursing and national guidelines for the provision of
supervision to mental health nurses need to be developed.
