Nursing staff response to challenging behaviour : attributions, emotions and evaluations

Abstract

This thesis looks at the responses of nursing staff to challenging behaviours in severely mentally ill populations, from a cognitive-behavioural perspective.

The first paper discusses the concept of challenging behaviour as it relates to severely mentally ill populations, defining the scope of such behaviours and outlining their nature and prevalence. Emotional reactions experienced by staff to such behaviour are highlighted, and their impact on both staff, and patient care. The importance of understanding such reactions is explored in relation to psychological theory, in particular cognitive-behavioural and attribution theory.

The second paper explores suggestions for future research made in the literature paper. Using a cognitive framework, staff responses to challenging behaviours are explored on three levels: attributions; emotions and evaluations. Actual incidences of self-harm, attempted suicide/suicide, aggression and serious violence are elicited from nursing staff. Results suggested emotional reactions were understandable in terms of attributions and evaluations held by staff. Descriptive statistics revealed that the different behaviours evoked different ranges and intensities of emotions.

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