How patients with severe mental illness experience care provided by psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners.
Loes van Dusseldorp, Marieke Groot, Anneke van Vught and 3 others
PMID 37074260WHAT IT FOUND
People with severe mental illness valued psychiatric nurse practitioner care for trust, normalizing their experiences, shared decision-making, and accessible contact.
Some still avoided discussing medication or intimate issues because they feared admission.
Key findings
01People with severe mental illness described the PMHNP as helping them understand and manage their illness, build self-confidence, and see situations differently.
02Participants valued feeling trusted, treated as a person, and involved in decisions, including medication choices.
03Not all experiences were positive: some participants avoided discussing medication or intimate issues because they feared admission, and a metaphor described the PMHNP as a demon.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was purposive and recruited by the participants' own nurse practitioners, so people who had more positive or reflective experiences may have been more likely to take part. The study describes experiences in the Netherlands, where psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners can act as coordinating practitioners with prescribing and treatment responsibilities; roles may differ elsewhere. It is a qualitative study, so it cannot show whether this care improves symptoms, recovery, or other clinical outcomes. Not all demographic or diagnostic details were collected because some participants did not share them.
Declared interests
The paper states that the authors report no conflicts of interest. No funding source is described in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as proof that psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner care improves outcomes. The study asked people to describe their experiences, and it did not compare this care with another treatment or measure symptom change.