A hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of patients’ and student nurses’ experiences of the time they share together on personality disorder forensic units

Abstract

This hermeneutic phenomenological study illustrates the value of key aspects of interpretative hermeneutics for illuminating the time shared between patients and students in forensic unit for men carrying a personality disorder diagnosis through interviews. The participants were being-with in their own time and space, sharing ordinary activities, common interests and having a laugh; ultimately, making enduring connections. This was despite experiences of thrownness into the world, ward landscapes, or the bearing of diagnostic labels. Students experienced a balance between therapeuticness (leaping-ahead) and professionalism (leaping-in). They were immune to the relational vacuum of the ward office and were viewed as ‘sponges’; reflecting their availability to patients, as opposed to other staff occupying more distant, identity defining set roles. On transition to fully-fledged staff roles, students can become holders of keys, but can weather the ride by treasuring the everyday mundane, being-with and connecting with patients. This temporality of student-patient's relationships encompasses mutual recognition of shared humanness. This hermeneutic phenomenological study uniquely explores the time shared between patients and students in forensic settings. Learnings from their experiences as illuminated using philosophical notions aid our understanding of this time to ensure focus on human connection.