| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Justifying CoercionUniversity of San Diego, CA, USA, pvuckov{at}calstatela.edu
Azusa Pacific University, CA, and California State University, Northridge, CA, USA A grounded theory study of psychiatric nurses’ experiences of administering medication to involuntary psychiatric patients revealed a basic social process of justifying coercion. Although the 17 nurses interviewed all reported success at avoiding the use of coercion, each had an individual approach to using the nurse-patient relationship to do this. However, all the nurses used the same process to reconcile themselves to using coercion when it became necessary. This has three stages: assessment of need; negotiation; and justifying and taking coercive action. Two critical junctures - decision to engage and impasse - determine the progression from one stage to the next. The process of justifying coercion allows a nurse to engage in behavior generally disapproved of while retaining a self-image of a ‘good’ nurse.
Key Words: coercion • ethics • involuntary hospitalization • mental illness • psychiatric nursing • psychotropic medication
Nursing Ethics, Vol. 12, No. 4,
370-380 (2005) This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
|
 |
|
Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
