Institutional breakdown: exploring mental health nursing practice in acute inpatient settings

Abstract

This book represents a sustained critique of nursing practice within acute inpatient settings. Using the methods of qualitative data gathering and analysis, it documents how the nursing role is hampered by organisational and historical factors over which the nurses have little control. In particular, the manner by which nursing teams have to cope with the everyday minutae of 'ward management', while attempting to care for disturbed or difficult patients, is closely and critically scrutinised. The book holds out little optimism for change which refuses to embrace radical solutions. To that end, it concludes by recommending the abolition of inpatient settings in their present form.