Being Open to a Process of Learning: The Meaning of Joint Activities With Patients as Narrated by Nursing Staff in Psychiatric Inpatient Care.
Andreas Glantz, Lena Wiklund Gustin, Ingeborg Nilsson and 2 others
PMID 39302009WHAT IT FOUND
Joint activities with psychiatric inpatients meant courage, learning and shared personhood for nursing staff.
They also brought uncertainty and colleague criticism.
Key findings
01Staff said engaging in joint activities meant uncertainty about the patient's readiness and possible criticism from colleagues, but they still considered the risk worthwhile.
02Staff described joint activities as opening new facets of the patient and of themselves, including seeing the person behind illness and gaining hope or pride.
03Staff reported feeling deceitful when assessment happened during an activity without the patient's full awareness, while also describing joint activities as sharing personhood.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The study interviewed nursing staff, not patients or families, so it reports staff meaning rather than patient experience or outcomes. Participants were recruited through social media and a website, and the authors note that staff with negative views of joint activities may have chosen not to take part, so criticism may be underrepresented. Some narratives were years old, so details may have changed in recall. The setting was Swedish adult psychiatric inpatient care, and the interpretation relied on one first author and a specific qualitative method, so transfer to other wards or countries is uncertain. The definition of joint activity was left open, so different activities may be grouped together.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The supplied text does not report a funding source.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as evidence that joint activities improve patient outcomes. The study interviewed nursing staff only and reported no patient outcomes.