Responses of persons at risk of suicide: A critical interpretive synthesis.
Anne-Grethe Talseth, Fredricka L Gilje
PMID 30338092WHAT IT FOUND
Persons at risk of suicide described confirming care from nurses as being seen, given time, conveyed hope, and not judged; they described lacking this as feeling burdensome and wanting discharge.
Key findings
01The synthesis organised patients' accounts into three interwoven concepts: disengagement fraught with affliction, readiness to engage in dialogue, and engaging through caring and being confirmed.
02Patients described confirming care from nurses as basic needs being met, being seen, given time, conveyed hope, and not judged; they described lacking confirming care as feeling burdensome, demanding discharge, and being at risk of suicide.
03Constant observation was described as preserving safety, restoring hope, and distressing incidents; therapeutic aspects included optimism, acknowledgement, distraction, emotional support, and protection, while nontherapeutic aspects included lack of empathy, acknowledgement, privacy invasion, and confinement.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only 24 studies were included, and 23 were qualitative, so the synthesis is interpretive rather than a measure of treatment effects. The participant count was dominated by 849 high school students in one study, while the remaining participants were mostly psychiatric patients. Most included studies were conducted in Europe and North America and in psychiatric settings. Eight studies did not report ethical standards. The authors acknowledged that their own backgrounds shaped the interpretation. The methods describe inclusion from 1990 to 2007, but the included sample is described as published from 1994 to May 2017.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that confirming care or therapeutic observation prevents suicide. It is a synthesis of patient experiences from qualitative nursing studies, not a trial of interventions or outcomes.