Nurses’ discourses of challenging behaviour in inpatient mental-health services

Abstract

Purpose

Nurses working in acute mental-health services are vulnerable to occupational stress. One stressor identified is the challenging behaviour of some service users (Jenkins and Elliott, 2004). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the discourses drawn on by nurses to understand challenging behaviour and talk about its management.

Design/methodology/approach

Nurses working on acute and psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) wards were interviewed, and data were analysed using discourse analysis.

Findings

Biomedical and systemic discourses were found to be dominant. Alternative psychosocial and emotional discourses were drawn on by some participants but marginalised by the dominant biomedical construction of challenging behaviour.

Originality/value

Existing studies have not considered how discourses socially construct challenging behaviour and its management in inpatient mental-health services.

Citation

Mellow, A., Tickle, A., Gresswell, D.M. and Jakobsen, H. (2018), "Nurses’ discourses of challenging behaviour in inpatient mental-health services", Mental Health Review Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1108/MHRJ-02-2018-0006