Emergency Nurses' Experiences Caring for Patients in Mental Health Crisis: Current Challenges and Future Directions

ABSTRACT

Aim

To analyse the experiences of emergency nurses caring for patients with mental health issues in the emergency department, identify the challenges they face during the care process, and explore potential solutions.

Design

A qualitative study.

Methods

Twenty-one nurses from three emergency medical centres in South Korea were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling methods for this study. Data were collected through focus group interviews from March 18 to April 12, 2024, and analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

Analysis of the nurses' experiences revealed three main themes: ‘Challenges in providing care for patients with mental illness’, ‘Emotional burden of caring for patients with mental illness’, and ‘Experiencing limitations in psychiatric nursing competency’. Nurses face structural, systemic, and institutional barriers that hinder the provision of quality care to patients with mental health problems and experience emotional distress during the nursing process.

Conclusion

Caring for patients with mental health problems in the emergency department negatively impacts the treatment and safety of patients with mental illness, other patients in the emergency department, and nurses' emotional well-being and job satisfaction. This highlights the need for multifaceted efforts to ensure safe and effective mental health nursing in emergency settings. With appropriate improvements, more specialised and safer mental health nursing services can be provided to patients visiting the emergency department for mental health issues.

Implications

Organisational and policy-level support is needed to provide safe and effective care to patients with mental health problems in the emergency department. This includes structural improvements, the establishment of standardised safety protocols, strengthened support for nurses' mental health, development and implementation of emergency department-specific training programs, and the expansion of specialised personnel.

Reporting Method

The COREQ guidelines were used to report the qualitative studies.

Patient or Public Contribution

No patient or public contribution.