The Complexity of Addressing Patients' Psychological States in Nursing Practice

Enabling a patient to respond to their treatment requires addressing their psychological, as well as physical state. This can be complex, particularly in primary care The nursing literature can suggest ways in which this can be done, although many of the recommendations are general in nature and the application to practice requires an articulation of the links between the concepts and their practice settings. This piece of qualitative research describes the attempts made by a nurse therapist delivering a psychological treatment for sufferers of a long-term condition to accommodate patients’ psychological states within practice. This research will be discussed in relation to the existing literature and also presents recommendations for other nursing staff carrying out a similar role in primary care and suggests how such recommendations could be taken forward to enable other practitioners to adapt them to their specific practice settings.