Articulating the value of psychiatric community health nurse interventions: a secondary analysis.

The purpose of this secondary analysis of qualitative data was to discover and articulate the nature and value of therapeutic nursing interventions (TNIs) utilized by psychiatric community health nurses (PCHNs). PCHNs encounter ethical conflict when faced with increasingly strict payment limitations on nursing practice (Sturm, 2004). This new analysis provides evidence of how TNIs, executed with a high level of sensitivity and skill, enable the PCHN to address and effectively manage the complex healthcare needs of patients with chronic mental illness. The author/researcher specifically analyzed qualitative data from two broad thematic categories of an ethnographic study of PCHN practice to explicate the nature and impact of TNIs employed by PCHNs in efforts to provide high-quality care. Specific TNIs were observed to be an integral part of the nurse-patient relationship and were executed by the PCHN, influencing patient self-esteem, socialization, and the capacity for autonomy.