Metaphors of postgraduate students for psychiatric nursing “Seeing yourself in the mirror”: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Psychiatric nursing is realized with the completion of postgraduate education in Türkiye. Individuals determine the field that they want to create and promote a professional identity in line with their personal and occupational goals. There is no study examining the perceptions of the nurses about the field they have chosen in Türkiye. This study was carried out to examine the metaphors of nurses continuing postgraduate education in the field of psychiatric nursing at a University for Psychiatric Nursing.
METHODS: This study was conducted with phenomenology approach among qualitative research designs. Forty-seven postgraduate nursing students participated in the study. The data were collected by an Information Form and the metaphor sentence as “psychiatric nursing is like … because…” that questions the perceptions of nurses about psychiatric nursing between July and October 2021.
RESULTS: In research, 37 different metaphors were identified among the answers examined. Terms such as mirror, observatory, tree root, stained glass, and dance were included among the metaphors. The metaphors were examined under six themes including titles such as “laboring,” “providing balance and integrity,” “understanding self and the other,” “accompanying,” “eternity/life,” and “rootedness.” It was observed that holistic, balancing, caring and accompanying aspects of nursing were emphasized through metaphors used by postgraduate students of psychiatric nursing. The frequent use of terms such as dance, color and music including artistic and esthetic elements has reflected the artistic aspect of psychiatric nursing.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The study provides data on specialization in psychiatric nursing nationally from a cultural and policy perspective.