M. Nikkonen, CARING FROM THE POINT-OF-VIEW OF A FINNISH MENTAL-HEALTH NURSE - A LIFE-HISTORY APPROACH, Journal of advanced nursing, 19(6), 1994, pp. 1185-1195
Finnish mental health care went through a major change in the 1980s. I
ts institutions were being run down and there was a shift to a caring
system that stresses non-institutional practices. The schooling and wo
rk of the mental health nurse had to adapt to the new situation. The p
urpose of my study was to describe and analyse the mental health nurse
's work, i.e. caring, as it is experienced by a nurse in the preparati
on of long-term psychiatric patients for non-institutional care. The d
ata consist of repeated interviews with Vuokko, who has been a mental
health nurse for about 30 years and is now approaching her retirement.
In the light of the data, the central features of caring are caring a
bout and taking an overall responsibility for the patient, and teachin
g the patient to cope with everyday life. Caring is based on practical
knowledge, the essential elements of which are intimacy and feelings.