Investigation of the Motivation of Nurses Working in a Mental Health and Psychiatry Hospital to Approach or Avoid Emotion Inducing Situations in Terms of Some Parameters

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to investigate the motivation of nurses, who are working in a mental health and illness hospital, to approach or avoid emotion inducing situations in terms of some parameters.Methods: This descriptive study was conducted with 101 nurses who worked in Samsun Mental Health and Illness Hospital between June 2017 and July 2017 and met the inclusion criteria. In the study, the “Demographic Information Sheet” and “Need for Affect Scale” were used as a data collection tool.Results: The nurses who thought that they were capable of recognizing their feelings had a low score from the avoidance sub-scale (p<0.05). The nurses who thought that they were capable of expressing their feelings had a high score from the approach sub-scale but a low score from the avoidance sub-scale (p<0.05). The nurses, who expressed that they partially abstain from participating in emotionally intense environments in their social lives, had a higher score from the avoidance sub-scale (p<0.05).Conclusion: It was concluded that for the nurses working in the mental health and illness hospital where the study was conducted, the parameter of thinking to be capable of expressing their feelings affected the motivation to approach emotion-inducing situations; while the parameters of thinking to be capable of recognizing feelings, of abstaining from participating in emotionally intense environments in social life, of thinking that individuals with mental illness are dangerous and having difficulty when working with them affected the avoidance motivation.