REVISITING NURSING IN A NONTHERAPEUTIC ENVIRONMENT

Abstract

To address unanswered questions raised by a previous study of nurses? ethical decision making in the context of psychiatric-mental health nursing, a reinterpretation of the previous data was conducted. In the earlier study, the core category was found to be Moral Survival in a Nontherapeutic Environment, and involved the nurses in a precarious and somewhat unsatisfactory balance in meeting their patients? needs while attempting to elicit no harm to themselves and others. In this second interpretation, we considered the nurses? actions from two different ethical perspectives ? an ethic of care and a critical feminist ethic ? in order to gain a deeper understanding of how these mental health nurses balance ethical demands in a nontherapeutic environment, and to understand why the nurses did not express satisfaction with their work.