Exploring Registered Psychiatric Nurses' Responses towards Service Users with a Diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder

Box 1

SPIRS scenario (first psychiatric admission) [27].

Interviewer reads the scenario and asks the questions below of each participant.

“D” is a patient in her mid-twenties. This is her FIRST psychiatric admission.

She was admitted to hospital 8 days ago. She has a diagnosis of BORDERLINE

PERSONALITY DISORDER

During the next week, while under your care, this patient says:

“Everybody around here just tells you what to do, you’re the only one who listens”

You answer:

“I’m not hungry—the food tastes like nothing.”

You answer:

“You again—why don’t you quit bothering me”.

You answer:

“I think O.T. is silly. Adults shouldn’t have to go do those things”.

You answer:

“I wish staff would just let me kill myself—that’s the most helpful thing they could do”.

You answer:

Why would you respond to the client that way?

What experiences influence your response?