Abstract
Aims and MethodGreetings cards (wishing patients well) appear less abundant on psychiatric wards than other in-patient facilities. We tested this hypothesis in three cross-sectional surveys of teaching hospitals in Sheffield.ResultsOn each occasion, psychiatric wards contained significantly fewer card recipients (χ2 test, P<0.001). Individual recipients in psychiatric wards received significantly fewer cards than recipients in general hospitals (Kruskal–Wallis test, P<0.05).Clinical ImplicationsAlthough receiving a card might seem a trivial matter, it nevertheless denotes the outcome of an altruistic act, which may be appreciated by its recipient. Psychiatric in-patients receive fewer such acts of kindness than other in-patients. These data concur with other recent reports suggesting that the stigma of mental illness extends to expressions of altruism.
Highlights
The physical environment of the psychiatric ward differs from that of the general hospital ward in a number of ways, but perhaps one of the more subtle is its relative lack of greetings cards (e.g. ‘get well soon’ cards)
Relative to the numbers of beds on each unit, the mean numbers of cards recorded were lowest for the psychiatric wards at each time point
Our data support the subjective impression that psychiatric wards exhibit fewer greetings cards
Summary
Psychiatric wards contained significantly fewer card recipients (w2 test, P50.001). Individual recipients in psychiatric wards received significantly fewer cards than recipients in general hospitals (Kruskal-Wallis test, P50.05). In both studies, the former received fewer cards than the latter, findings that were interpreted in terms of stigma. Given the likely impact of stigma upon the patient’s well-being, we wished to test the central hypothesis that psychiatric in-patients receive fewer cards than others, through assaying larger samples, in cross-sectional surveys, repeated over time
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