Psychiatric Patients' and Nurses' Opinions About Limit Setting Technique in Port-said City.

BACKGROUND: Limit setting facilitates the development of a therapeutic, caring and supportive relationships, it can also decrease patients' feelings of anxiety and uncertainty. It is a two-way process that should be delivered professionally by the nurse and perceived therapeutically by the patient, so patient considered a vital participant of the technique.

AIM: The present study aimed at exploring psychiatric patients' and nurses' opinions as well as their information about limit setting.

METHOD: All nurses working at the hospital and working along the day (the three day shifts) were included in the study (N=88), as well as all convenient patients that were willing to participate in the study (N=104).In order to collect data for the present study, three open-ended structured questionnaires were developed by the researcher.

RESULTS: Psychiatric nurses working at Port-Said psychiatric hospital have insufficient information concerning limit setting in which use of threats and authoritarian communication is nurses' style of application. Regrettably, nurses of the present study disagreed with essential and indispensible principles that should be followed when setting limits. Concerning psychiatric patients, the study revealed that patients had negative experiences with limit settings that contributed to enforcement of misconceptions and negative opinions about limit setting. Also, psychiatric patients viewed limit setting technique as nurses' way of punishment as well as humiliation.

RECOMMENDATIONS: Providing nurses with sufficient information about different psychiatric nursing skills such as communication skills and use of restraint; through holding educational workshops and seminars. Secondly, nurses need specific and professional training course accompanied with clinical application or simulation. As regard psychiatric patients, providing courses by professional and competent nursing staff regarding limit setting emphasizing its therapeutic uses and outcomes is a must; in order to correct misconceptions they acquired.