Abstract
Borderline personality disorder, also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder, is a mental health epidemic, with more and more service users being admitted or referred to hospital under crisis. Negative nursing attitudes can have a distressing and detrimental impact on service users and treatment success. This literature review examined current research to attempt to understand what attitudes nursing staff have towards borderline personality disorder and self-harm, how this impacts on care provided and the effect it has on nursing staff performance. The literature review incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research. Four themes emerged after using interpretative phenomenological analysis: 1. Training and support; 2. Negative attitudes and outlook; 3. Paucity of knowledge/ stigma; 4. Emotional strain. The themes gave an understanding of nursing attitudes in this context. Appropriate education and training on working with borderline personality disorder and self-harm improved attitudes and the clinical pathway.
Key words Borderline personality disorder, emotionally unstable personality disorder, self-harm
Abstract
Borderline personality disorder, also known as emotionally unstable personality disorder, is a mental health epidemic, with more and more service users being admitted or referred to hospital under crisis. Negative nursing attitudes can have a distressing and detrimental impact on service users and treatment success. This literature review examined current research to attempt to understand what attitudes nursing staff have towards borderline personality disorder and self-harm, how this impacts on care provided and the effect it has on nursing staff performance. The literature review incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research. Four themes emerged after using interpretative phenomenological analysis: 1. Training and support; 2. Negative attitudes and outlook; 3. Paucity of knowledge/ stigma; 4. Emotional strain. The themes gave an understanding of nursing attitudes in this context. Appropriate education and training on working with borderline personality disorder and self-harm improved attitudes and the clinical pathway.