‘We try’ – how nurses work with patient participation in forensic psychiatric care

Abstract

Compulsory forensic psychiatric care is a complex care context that requires constant efforts from nurses to balance patients' rights and needs with mandatory care. The very nature of this caring context appears to be a major obstacle when promoting patient participation. Nevertheless, nurses express that they do aim for patient participation, 'they try'. From a patient's perspective, trying is not sufficient and a need for improvement is evident. The results can be of clinical interest in similar secure forensic psychiatric nursing settings, and a point of departure in future development of care striving for increased patient participation for all.