Palliative psychiatry through the eyes of psychiatric nurses in a country where palliative psychiatry has not yet emerged: A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVES: Palliative psychiatry is an approach that aims to prevent and/or alleviate suffering and improve the quality of life of patients and their families through timely assessment and treatment when faced with physical, psychological, social, and spiritual problems associated with serious life-threatening mental illness. However, the need for psychiatric palliative care for individuals with serious mental illness has remained in the background and only became possible in the early 21st century. Therefore, it is essential that nurses, one of the most important actors of patient-centered care, assume the responsibility of providing palliative psychiatric care as a requirement of their patient advocacy role. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of palliative psychiatric care by psychiatric nurses in a country where palliative psychiatry has not yet emerged.

METHODS: A study in qualitative descriptive design with semi-structured interviews. Fifteen psychiatric nurses participated in individual interviews. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS: Four themes (Perception of palliative psychiatric care, Palliative psychiatric care practices, Barriers to palliative psychiatric care, and Recommendations for providing palliative psychiatric care) and 14 sub-themes were identified.

SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Psychiatric nurses are not familiar with the concept of palliative psychiatric care and associate it with holistic and individualized care. Nurses stated that palliative psychiatric care targets serious psychiatric disorders, treatment-resistant conditions, comorbidities and end-of-life care. In order to overcome barriers to palliative psychiatric care, suggestions were made for reorganizing the health system, establishing palliative care centers, training professionals in this field, and efforts to combat stigma.