THE EXPERIENCE OF A COMMUNITY CHARACTERIZED BY VIOLENCE - IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

Social situations make a person vulnerable to mental illness. These si tuations include circumstances such as poverty, family instability and inadequate nutrition. A combination of these circumstances predispose s exposed people to developing unhealthy ways of coping with stress. V iolence is seen as a way of managing stress, but also as a factor caus ing stress. An example of unhealthy ways of stress management in the c urrent South African society is the violence that leads to unrest whic h has affected different communities in a short space of time. The aim of this study was to explore the experience of a community exposed to violence and to identify implications for nursing. An exploratory con textual study was undertaken with the purpose of generating meaning re garding the experience of a community characterized by violence. The p henomenological method of interviewing was used to gather data. The ta rget population consisted of a township community of 228 000. Ten resp ondents were interviewed in total, selected by the convenience purposi ve sampling method through intermediaries. The interviews were recorde d on tape and later transcribed verbatim. Data were analysed by the me thod of content analysis. The results were centred on the respondents' and their families' experiences of violence since March 1990. The res ults indicated four types of experiences for all people exposed to vio lence: psychological, spiritual, physical and behavioural experiences. The experiences of interactions with the internal environment (psycho logical, spiritual and physical experience) were predominantly negativ e, except for only two positive spiritual experiences (improvements in the people's faith and in the employer-employee relationships). On th e other hand, experiences of interactions between the internal and ext ernal environments namely behavioural experiences, were both negative and positive. The negative experiences included pretence, thuggery, sc apegoating and harassment. The positive experiences included solidarit y, bravery and increased appreciation. The presence of positive experi ences in both environments brought about new insights; that is, that e ven though most of their internal environment and part of their extern al environment is bleak and hopeless, the victims of violence still ha ve the will to survive and live a normal life like other people. This positive attitude supplies the psychiatric nuse with a point of entry to bring about positive change that acts as a support for the communit y exposed to violence. Possibilities of applying the results of this s tudy in education, practice and research in the health field became ev ident.