Encounters with patients in forensic inpatient care

Forensic psychiatric care is characterized by compulsory care, long hospital stays, where nurses take care of patients with mental illness, who have often committed crimes. The main purpose is to rehabilitate the patient so that he or she becomes part of society again, improve mental health and reduce the risk of recidivism. This is achieved mainly through caring encounters with the patients.

Treating patients in forensic psychiatric care means facing suffering and the duality of safeguarding the patient's best interests and protecting society. Something that involves regulating one's own feelings, interpreting expressions of suffering and treating patients with compassion and kindness, not turning to norms and rules to protect oneself and one's own vulnerability. Thus, for nurses to not distance themselves from the patients, but instead make room for "life expressions", sometimes taking a step back, being able to look inward to regulate own emotions and face their own vulnerability in order to get closer to the patient, creating opportunities for a relationship. 

The project has a qualitative approach and is based on narrative interviews with healthcare professionals, such as nurse’s and assistant nurses; those in the care team who meet the patients daily in inpatient forensic psychiatric care.