非精神科护士照护精神-躯体共病患者体验的描述性现象学研究

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry

Sec. Public Mental Health

• 1. Zhejiang University School of Medicine Affiliated Mental Health Centre & Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital, Hangzhou, China

• 2. Hangzhou Normal University Affiliated Hospital, Hangzhou, China

Abstract

Abstract Purpose: This study aimed to explore non-psychiatric nurses’ experiences of caring for patients with mental-physical comorbidity, the challenges they encounter, and the factors shaping these experiences. Design: A descriptive phenomenological design was used, with data collected through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews. Methods: Between March and April 2025, 20 registered nurses from non-psychiatric departments of a tertiary hospital in Hangzhou, China, participated in in-depth interviews. Data were analysed using Colaizzi’s seven-step phenomenological method, with NVivo 12.0 used to support data management. Results: Nurses described difficulty recognising psychiatric symptoms, balancing mental and physical care, managing safety concerns, communicating with patients, and providing care during night shifts. They also reported limited intervention options and reliance on experiential knowledge. Factors shaping these experiences included stigma-related concealment of mental illness, difficulty engaging some patients in care, limited mental health knowledge and communication skills, lack of standardised guidance, weak collaboration with psychiatric services, and workload and time pressure. Conclusion: Non-psychiatric nurses described caring for patients with mental-physical comorbidity as challenging when psychiatric symptoms were difficult to recognise, mental and physical priorities competed, and access to guidance or psychiatric support was limited. Training in mental health assessment and communication, practical care protocols, and accessible psychiatric consultation may help address these difficulties.

Keywords

Descriptive Phenomenology, Mental Health Nursing, Mental-physical comorbidity, Non-psychiatric nurses, Nursing Care

Received

01 November 2025

Accepted

18 September 2026

Copyright

© 2026 Zhang, Feng, Luo and Xue. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Bowen Xue

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All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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