Mid Sweden University

This study aims to describe how nurses perceive their professional roles in providing meal support for adult inpatients with anorexia nervosa. A qualitative design and reflexive thematic analysis were used, as well as the SRQR (i.e. Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research) reporting guidelines for accuracy and completeness. Personal interviews were conducted with 11 nursing staff in a general psychiatric inpatient ward. The results revealed an overarching theme: performing meal support – fluent shifting between roles, with two themes: acting as a supervisor, monitoring food intake, and getting into the supportive and helping role. Both themes further consisted of three subthemes each. The results show nurses’ ability to shift between roles and adapt to patients’ needs at the same time as maintaining treatment structure during meal support. Moving between differences in approach is important in fostering a therapeutic relationship and facilitating patient recovery. Balancing this is especially vital in nursing and involves meeting challenging responsibilities at the same time as addressing individual patient requirements.

Purpose:

The aim of this study was to illuminate the meaning of nurses’ lived experiences of encounters with adult patients with anorexia nervosa in psychiatric inpatient care.

Methods:

A qualitative phenomenological hermeneutical design was used. Personal interviews with a narrative approach were conducted with 11 nurses with experience of encountering patients with anorexia nervosa in psychiatric inpatient care.

Results:

Three key themes were revealed: Being overwhelmed by emotions consisting of three subthemes: Bearing feelings of in comprehension, Navigating emotions, and Being disappointed and frustrated; Seeking strength to cope consisting of three subthemes: Relying on colleagues and routines, Feeling hope and motivation, and Building inner security; and Trying to build relations consisting of two subthemes: Getting closer to the patient and Relating to relatives.

Conclusion:

Our findings illuminate the “emotional roller-coaster” which nurses are embedded in during their daily work experiences. Being able to balance one’s professional role, seeing the person behind the patient, and the illness is important in all nurse-patient encounters. An examination of nurses’ lived experiences can contribute new and important knowledge, an in-depth understanding of the nurses’ work situation, and can help identify any need for increased knowledge.

Adolescent girls with eating disorders experience unattainable and contradictory expectations in daily life, which create stress and negatively affect their self-evaluation. Disordered eating may function as a way of seeking control and consistency. In order to make progress in the understanding of eating disorders, the aim of this study was to describe how adolescent girls with eating disorders reflect upon ways of dealing with sociocultural pressures in daily life. Eighteen interviews with girls aged 15–19 years were analyzed using a phenomenographic approach. The results were summarized into three conceptions: ‘Striving to be oneself" (conception A) was described as the most desirable, but also the hardest. "Adapting to various situations’ (conception B) was used without much reflection, as long as it worked, but when this way of dealing with everyday expectations was unsuccessful it was evaluated negatively. "Presenting oneself in a positive light" (conception C) was described negatively even when it was successful. Within these conceptions, the participants described various strategies that could be used more or less effectively depending on the circumstances. A common theme was their difficulties in finding a balance between trying harder to live up to perceived expectations from others on one hand, and trying to accept the situation as it was, without trying to change themselves or the situation, on the other hand. The participants believed that their eating disorder was partly a result of being unable to deal with sociocultural pressures in an effective way, and they experienced a conflict between societal values of being assertive and values of being interpersonally oriented. Implications for treatment are discussed.

The aim of this study was to describe the variation of perceived expectations in daily life of adolescent girls suffering from eating disorders. Eighteen interviews with girls between the age of 15 and 19 years were analyzed according to the phenomenographic approach. The results could be summarized into three categories: expectations from others, self-imposed expectations, and conflicting expectations. Each of these could be further subdivided into two conceptions. Conflicting and unattainable expectations were severe stressors in the participants' lives. Many participants had problems identifying expectations that were not explicit. The participants internalized these expectations and interpreted them to be self-imposed. Clinical implications are suggested.