Nurses' Attitudes and Beliefs about the Provocative Psychological Factors for Self-Injury: A Descriptive Qualitative Study

Abstract

<strong><em><span>Background </span></em></strong><br /> <span>Nurses have an important role in taking care of self-injury patients <span>and</span> their attitudes would affect the quality of care for these patients<strong>. </strong>Controversial results have been reported about the nurses' attitude.Also, culture and context affect nurses' attitudes. The study aimed to explore the nurses' attitudes and beliefs about the <span>provocative</span> psychological factors for self-injury in an Iranian context. </span><br /> <strong><em><span>Materials and Methods: </span></em></strong><span>The present study was a descriptive qualitative research that was conducted on 12 experienced nurses in taking care of self-injury patients from three hospitals of Isfahan, using purposive and snowball sampling. Data were gathered from January to July 2017 through individual semi-structured interviews and were analyzed using conventional content analysis approach and Graneheim and Lundman method. </span><br /> <strong><em><span>Results</span></em></strong><br /> <span>Findings of the study were described in two main categories including intrapersonal factors of self-injury and interpersonal factors of self-injury. The first main category contained two subcategories including poor self-awareness and self-esteem and personality immaturity. The second category <span>consisted</span> of three subcategories including outburst of emotions, losing spirituality and low psychosocial efficiency. </span><br /> <strong><em><span>Conclusion</span></em></strong><br /> <span>The study provide an insight into how people's mental immaturity contributing to the framing of people as vulnerable to self-injury. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and perform multiple psychological interventions such as training coping strategies to decrease the risk of self-injury. Also, policies should be adopted to promote psychosocial support for these patients.</span>