Effects of brief family psychoeducation on family caregiver burden of people with schizophrenia provided by psychiatric visiting nurses: a cluster randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a brief family psychoeducation (BFP) programme provided by psychiatric visiting nurses on caregiver burden of family caregivers of people with schizophrenia through a cluster randomised controlled trial (cRCT). METHODS: The study was a two-arm, parallel-group cRCT. Forty-seven psychiatric visiting nurse agencies were randomly allocated to the BFP programme group (intervention group) or treatment as usual group (TAU; control group). Caregivers of people with schizophrenia were recruited by psychiatric visiting nurses using a randomly ordered list. The primary outcome was caregiver burden, measured using the Japanese version of the Zarit Burden Interview. Outcome assessments were conducted at baseline, 1-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up. Intention-to-treat analysis was conducted to examine the effects of the BFP programme on caregiver burden. RESULTS: Thirty-four psychiatric visiting nurse agencies and 83 family caregivers of people with schizophrenia participated in the study. The participant attrition rate was less than 20%. Adherence to the program was 100%. Compared with TAU group, the BFP programme group had decreased caregiver burden. However, this improvement was not significant at 1-month follow-up (adjusted mean difference [aMD] = 0.27, 95% CI = - 5.48 to 6.03, p = 0.93, d = 0.01) or 6-month follow-up (aMD = - 2.12, 95% CI = - 7.80 to 3.56, p = 0.45, d = 0.11). CONCLUSIONS: The BFP programme provided by psychiatric visiting nurses did not achieve significant decreases in caregiver burden. This result may be attributed to the difficulty in continuing the research due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which prevented us from achieving the targeted sample size necessary to meet the statistical power requirements, as well as to the participation of caregivers with relatively low burden. However, the program had the advantage of high adherence to treatment plan. Further studies should be conducted with a larger sample size and a more diverse sample that includes caregivers with a higher care burden. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000038044) on 2019/09/18.

Positioning virtual reality as means of clinical experience in mental health nursing education: A quasi-experimental study.

PURPOSE: Virtual reality technology has been used to establish a risk-free environment in which students can practice psychiatric nursing. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to examine the effects of a virtual reality (VR) based mental health nursing simulation on practice performance of undergraduate nursing students. METHODS: A quasi-experimental, pre- and post-test design was used. A total of 68 students were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 32) and a control group (n = 36). The control group received conventional simulation using text scenario-based role play. The intervention group received VR software consisting of 360° video clips and related quiz questions. RESULTS: The self-reported perceived competency in nursing performance showed no statistically significant improvement in the experimental group, whereas the control group showed a statistically significant improvement in symptom management (t = 2.84, p = 0.007) and nurse-patient interaction (t = 2.10, p = 0.043). Scores from the assessor showed better performance scores in the experimental group in symptom management (t = -2.62, p = 0.011), violence risk management (t = -3.42, p = 0.001), and nurse-patient interaction (t = -3.12, p = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate the potential of using VR for optimized mental health nursing simulation. VR technology allowed realistic experiences which may ensure students have a more comprehensive understanding of mentally ill patients and in doing so, overcome barriers of traditional simulation, resulting in better learning outcomes.

Josicélia Dumêt Fernandes' professional trajectory: contributions to psychiatric and mental health nursing.

OBJECTIVES: to analyze nurse Josicélia Dumêt Fernandes' life story, with emphasis on her work in the psychiatry and mental health fields. METHODS: historical, qualitative research. Semi-structured interviews and documentary research were used as data collection techniques, collected from September to October 2021. For data analysis, we opted for the content analysis method and comparison with the Foucauldian philosophical framework. RESULTS: four categories emerged: Transforming herself and mental health practices; (Re)framing professional practice; Nursing practice and power relations; and The paths and implications in the psychiatry and mental health fields. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: the study of the biographer demonstrates a search for transformation of herself and mental health practices, with a rupture in paradigms and reframing of her practice in psychiatry and mental health.

Research and Future Challenges for Disseminating Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare in Japan.

Strengths-Based Nursing and Healthcare (SBNH) has garnered attention in the field of psychiatric nursing in Japan, yet its adoption in other nursing sectors remains limited. Japan is currently facing the formidable challenge of a rapidly aging population and growing demand for healthcare and welfare services. To address these issues, a shift from hospital-based care to comprehensive community care is underway, underscoring the importance of nurses in community settings, where focusing on client strengths is essential. Therefore, this paper aims to present research and practical examples to advocate for the broader dissemination of SBNH in Japan.

The Core Elements of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing: Time, Honest Engagement, Therapeutic Relations, Professional Nursing and Lifetime-Perspective.

Defining psychiatric and mental health nursing has been a challenge for decades, and it is still difficult to find a comprehensive definition. We have identified a possibility to clarify psychiatric and mental health nursing based on humanistic philosophy in a general psychiatric care context. The aim was therefore to identify and synthesize the theoretical frameworks from which psychiatric and mental health nursing models are developed. We systematically collected and evaluated articles based on Grounded Theory (GT) methodology regarding psychiatric or mental health nursing. The PRISMA statement for systematic reviews was used and the formal process of synthesis, as a three-step process of identifying first -, second - and third-order themes following the examples of Howell Major and Savin-Baden. The synthesis resulted in a model describing five core elements of psychiatric and mental health nursing: 'professional nursing', 'therapeutic relationships' and 'honest engagement', with time as the all-encompassing theme, including the patients' 'lifetime perspective'. Psychiatric and mental health nursing is a caring support towards recovery, where the patient's lifetime perspective must be in focus during the caring process with a relationship built on an honest engagement. Time is therefore essential for psychiatric and mental health nursing.

Environments that promote recovery in acute care mental health: nursing perspectives explored through interpretative description.

BACKGROUND: A significant change in mental health care has involved the need to implement recovery-oriented practices and services. However, recovery-oriented care has been poorly defined within acute care mental health settings. OBJECTIVES: The central aims of the study were to increase knowledge about what constitutes a recovery-oriented environment within contemporary acute care units and to inform recovery-oriented nursing practice. METHODS: Interpretative description was applied to answer the question: What strategies and resources do nurses identify as being most conducive to fostering a recovery-oriented environment in acute care mental health units? Purposive sampling was used to recruit 11 nurses from 6 acute care units. The inclusion criteria included a minimum of 1-year patients and holding active nursing registration. Nursing experience in community-based or chronic care settings and with children and adolescents were exclusion criteria. Six nurses also participated in a focus group. RESULTS: Key aspects of a recovery-oriented acute care environment included understanding the needs of individual patients along with the dynamics of the healthcare team. Nurses had important roles in promoting recovery-oriented environments and reported a need for increased resources to move beyond the bio-medical model and align practice with personal recovery. CONCLUSION: A recovery-oriented environment was described as a safe, peaceful and holistic environment with adequate space to balance needs for privacy, interaction and activity. This environment is fostered through respectful communication and healthy relationships among team members, patients, family and formal supports. These nurses had the knowledge, skill and desire to promote recovery-oriented environments, yet resources such as leisure activities and group therapy were required to promote personal recovery.

Combining Critical Ethnography and Critical Discourse Analysis in Mental Health Nursing Research.

BACKGROUND: It is uncommon to combine critical ethnography with critical discourse analysis (CDA) in health research, yet this combination has promise for managing challenges inherent in critical mental health nursing research. OBJECTIVES: This article describes a methodologically innovative way to address issues that arise in the context of critical mental health nursing research. METHODS: This article draws on two studies that each employed a combination of critical ethnography and CDA in the context of mental health nursing research, discussing the challenges and implications of this approach. RESULTS: Although the combination critical ethnography and CDA presents several challenges, it also provides a framework for researchers to sustain a critically reflective stance throughout the research process. This facilitates the process of reanalyzing and reflecting on how healthcare practices and knowledge both support and are constrained by hegemonic discourses. DISCUSSION: This combination has the potential to facilitate the production of new, emancipatory knowledge that will assist nurses in understanding issues of structural inequity within the healthcare system.

Ethical challenges for nurses delivering coercive interventions in community mental health settings: A scoping review.

The number of Australians subject to coercive interventions in community mental health services continues to increase. This is in the context of a growing awareness of the harms from coercion, increasing concerns about potential breaches of human rights and an ongoing uncertainty regarding the clinical benefits of community treatment orders, the primary instrument of legislated coercion in community mental health services. Nurses in community mental health services are on the frontline with regard to coercion. They police the requirements of the community treatment order, administer medication to people in community settings without their consent and facilitate re-hospitalisation if indicated. Coercive practice contradicts the person-centred, recovery-oriented and trauma-informed care principles that inform contemporary mental health nursing. This contradiction may generate ethical challenges for nurses and result in ethical distress. The aim of this scoping review was to map the research literature on how nurses in community mental health settings recognise and manage the harm associated with the administration of coercive interventions and consider the ethical challenges that may arise within this practice. The search strategy yielded 562 studies with author consensus determining a total of three articles as meeting the inclusion criteria. The resulting literature identified three themes: (1) maintaining the therapeutic relationship, (2) promoting autonomy and (3) using subtle forms of control. This review demonstrated that there is minimal research that has considered the ethical challenges related to the use of coercion by nurses in community mental health settings.

Using a trauma-informed care framework to explore social climate and borderline personality disorder in forensic inpatient settings.

Tensions between therapeutic and security needs on forensic wards can create a social climate which is challenging for both mental health nurses and patients. Social climate refers to the physical, social and emotional conditions of a forensic ward which influence how these environments are experienced. For patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), previous trauma means that the social climate of forensic settings may be experienced as retraumatising, negatively impacting the outcomes and wellbeing of both patients and mental health nurses. Trauma-informed care (TIC) has been offered as a contemporary framework for mental health nursing in inpatient units which aims to create a therapeutic social climate. In this critical review, we drew widely on literatures examining the social climate in forensic settings, the relationships between patients with BPD and staff (including mental health nurses), and the experiences of patients with BPD in forensic and inpatient settings to draw out the implications of scrutinising these literatures through the lens of TIC. Attending to the physical, social and emotional conditions of social climate in secure settings highlights how forensic wards can mirror trauma experiences for patients with BPD. Implementing TIC in these contexts has the potential to evoke positive shifts in the social climate, thus reducing the risk of retraumatisation and leading to improved outcomes for patients and staff.

In their own words: Mental health nurses' experiences of trauma-informed care in acute mental health settings or hospitals.

Trauma-informed care has emerged as a prominent strategy to eliminate coercive practices and improve experiences of care in mental health settings, with advocacy from international bodies for mental health reform. Despite this, there remains a significant gap in research understanding the integration of trauma-informed care in mental health nursing practice, particularly when applied to the acute mental health or hospital-based setting. The study aimed to explore the experiences of mental health nurses employed in acute hospital-based settings from a trauma-informed care perspective. The study design was qualitative, using a phenomenological approach to research. A total of 29 nurses employed in acute mental health or hospital-based environments participated. Three over-arching themes were uncovered: 'Embodied Awareness': highlighting mental health nursing emotional capabilities are deeply rooted in bodily awareness. 'Navigating Safety': signifying spatial elements of fear and how some mental health nurses' resort to coercive or restrictive practices for self-preservation. 'Caring Amidst Uncertainty': revealing the relational influences of security guards in mental health nursing. The study reveals a significant gap in trauma-informed care implementation when applied to the context of mental health nursing practice in this setting. Limited evidence on trauma-informed care for mental health nurses, coupled with inadequate workforce preparation and challenging work environments, hinder the effective integration of it. To genuinely embed TIC in acute mental health settings, the study emphasises the need for a thorough exploration of what this entails for mental health nurses.

Analysis of changes in the national mental health nursing workforce in England, 2011-2021.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Nurses work in mental health services around the world, constituting the largest professional group. Nurses have been identified as being potentially able to carry out a much wider range of functions than are typically allowed in practice, when provided with suitable training. There are long-term concerns regarding shortages of mental health nurses in England and many other countries. Workforce data is rarely subject to analysis in peer-reviewed journals. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This paper provides a case study of the workforce patterns of a national mental health nurse (MHN) workforce overtime allowing comparison with other countries and specialities. MHN numbers reduced from 2011 to 2017, then increased to near the 2011 level by 2021, not meeting ambitious national plans for increasing numbers. The mental health nursing proportion of the total NHS nursing workforce decreased through this period. Advanced practice roles and skills are widely, but unevenly, distributed and are provided by a small proportion of nurses. The proportion of nurses working in community settings has increased to constitute more than half of all nurses for the first time. The ratio of support workers to nurses increased in inpatient settings and will continue to change. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Historical challenges in recruiting MHNs suggest that future plans to expand the profession are overly optimistic. To support the development of advanced practice roles and new skill sets, clearer research evidence of impact is required and clearer national guidance regarding best practice models. Good workforce data are essential to inform good workforce planning. ABSTRACT: Introduction Data regarding changes in characteristics of the MHN workforce is commonly cited in governmental publications, but is rarely analysed in peer-reviewed journals, despite ongoing concerns regarding high vacancy rates within mental health services. Aim The aim of the study was to characterize changes in the MHN workforce, implementation of new nursing roles/skills and alignment with national policy. Method Analysis of nationally published workforce data, peer-reviewed publications and governmental policy/planning documents. Results Nurse numbers declined from 2011 to 2017, subsequently returning to near 2011 levels, but remaining below national targets. Nurses in community settings increased to constitute more than half of all nurses, whilst inpatient numbers declined, although more slowly than bed numbers. The ratio between nurses and support workers changed due to more support workers in inpatient settings. New advanced skills and roles for nurses have increased, but are unevenly distributed, constituting a small proportion of the total workforce. Implications for Practice This paper provides a case study against which comparisons may be made with the nursing workforce in other countries and specialities. Even clear policy commitment to nursing growth may not deliver planned changes in numbers and introducing new roles may have uneven impact, especially in the absence of a robust evidence base.

The lived experience of psychiatric-mental health nurses working with dissociative disorder inpatients: A phenomenological inquiry.

Nursing literature about dissociative disorders is lacking, resulting in a deficit of available evidence to drive nursing practice. This study sought to address this scarcity of literature by shedding light on the lived experiences of nurses who directly care or have cared for this population. Participants were individually interviewed along the lines of training, education, and personal experiences, and responses were analyzed to uncover themes found in multiple interviews. The result was a clear emphasis on improving education about the unique needs of individuals with dissociative disorders in order to improve the nursing care of this population.

All I missed in the therapeutic relationship: The lived experience narrative of a mental health nurse receiving mental healthcare.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: The therapeutic relationship is crucial for mental health practice, especially to practice that is recovery-orientated. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This lived experience suggests that mental health professionals can be a long way from knowing the service users' feelings and their precise needs. The narrative reveals how mental health professionals maintain stereotypes and prejudices against people with mental health conditions and how these are reflected in their practice through lack of respect and users' dignity. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR MENTAL HEALTH NURSING?: This lived experience narrative highlights the need to humanize care. ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: The therapeutic relationship is not always functional in clinical practice due to various factors, such as lack of time, lack of job motivation, exhaustion and rejection towards the person cared for. AIM: The aim of this study is to illustrate to professionals the needs of the persons they care for and how they see the world. METHOD: The aim was achieved through the development of a lived experience narrative. RESULTS: This lived experience narrative describes the experience of a mental health nurse since her first psychotic symptoms and her perceptions of the therapeutic relationship with mental health staff in her trajectory from the first psychiatric appointment until her last contact with the community mental health services. DISCUSSION: This narrative suggests that mental health professionals are sometimes far from discovering what service users are feeling and their precise needs. This highlights the need to humanize mental healthcare.

Trauma-informed care in acute mental health units through the lifeworld of mental health nurses: A phenomenological study.

Trauma-informed care has gained increasing popularity in mental health services over the past two decades. Mental health nurses remain one of the largest occupations employed in acute mental health settings and arguably have a critical role in supporting trauma-informed care in this environment. Despite this, there remains a limited understanding on how trauma-informed care is applied to the context of mental health nursing in the hospital environment. The aim of this study was to explore what it means for mental health nurses to provide trauma-informed care in the acute mental health setting. The study design was qualitative, using van Manen's (Researching lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. State University of New York Press, 1990) approach to hermeneutic phenomenological inquiry. A total of 29 mental health nurses participated in this study. There were three overarching themes that emerged; these entail: embodied trauma-informed milieu, trauma-informed relationality and temporal dimensions of trauma-informed mental health nursing. The study found that for mental health nurses, there are elements of trauma-informed care that extend far beyond the routine application of the principles to nursing practice. For mental health nurses working in the acute setting, trauma-informed care may offer a restorative function in practice back to the core tenants of therapeutic interpersonal dynamics it was once based upon.

Patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship in psychiatric inpatient hospitals: A multicentred descriptive cross-sectional study.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Psychiatric and/or mental health nurses are struggling to measure the outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship. Collecting nurse-sensitive patient outcomes is a strategy to provide outcomes of a nurse-patient relationship from patients' perspectives. Because there was no validated scale, the Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-Scale (six-point Likert-scale) was recently developed and psychometrically evaluated. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This is the first study using the Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-scale to measure nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship in psychiatric hospitals. Moderate to good average scores for the MH-NURSE-POS total (4.42) and domains scores (≥4.09). are observed. Especially outcomes related to 'motivation' to follow and stay committed to the treatment received high average scores (≥4.60). Our results are consistent with the patient-reported effect(s) of relation-based nursing in qualitative research. The scores generate evidence to support the outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship and implicates that further investment in (re)defining and elaborating nurse-patient relationships in mental healthcare is meaningful and justified. More comparative patient-reported data can determine how nurse-sensitive patient outcomes are affected by the patient, nurse, and context. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Demonstrating patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship can be important to enhance the therapeutic alliance between nurses and patients, organize responsive nursing care, and create nursing visibility in mental healthcare. Further nursing staff training on interpersonal competencies, such as self-awareness and cultural sensitivity, can be pivotal to achieving the patient-reported outcomes for inpatients with mental health problems. ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Identifying patient-reported outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship is a priority in inpatient mental healthcare to guide clinical decision-making and quality improvement initiatives. Moreover, demonstrating nurse-sensitive patient outcomes can be a strategy to avoid further erosion of the specialism of psychiatric and/or mental health nursing. AIM/QUESTION: To measure nurse-sensitive patient outcomes of the nurse-patient relationship. METHOD: In a multicentred cross-sectional study, 296 inpatients admitted to five psychiatric hospitals completed the recently developed and validated Mental Health Nurse-Sensitive Patient Outcome-Scale (MH-NURSE-POS). The MH-NURSE-POS consists of 21 items (six-point Likert-scale) in four domains: 'growth', 'expression', 'control', and 'motivation'. RESULTS: Participants displayed moderate to good average scores for the MH-NURSE-POS total (4.42) and domain scores (≥4.09). Especially outcomes related to 'motivation' to follow and stay committed to the treatment received high average scores (≥4.60). DISCUSSION: The results demonstrate that patients perceive the nurse-patient relationship and the care given by psychiatric and/or mental health nurses as contributing to their treatment. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICES: Patient-reported outcomes can guide nurses and managers to provide and organize nursing care and to build a nurse-patient relationship that has a positive impact on these outcomes. Additionally, outcomes can create nursing visibility as a profession in- and outside mental healthcare.

Experiences of Inpatient Psychiatric Nursing Care among People Who Have Survived a Suicide Attempt.

Nurses are front line providers for people who have been hospitalized following a suicide attempt, yet few studies have explored this population's experiences specifically with nursing care in inpatient psychiatric units. The purpose of this study was to hear directly from people who have survived a suicide attempt about their experiences with inpatient psychiatric nursing care following a suicide attempt in order to identify strengths and weaknesses of current practices and elicit suggested improvements. Qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with people who were previously psychiatrically hospitalized following a suicide attempt (N = 9; Mage=42). Applied thematic analysis was used to identify themes related to positive and negative experiences with nursing care during hospitalization and advice for nurses. Findings demonstrated that positive experiences with nurses related to empathy, friendliness, feeling supported, flexibility, and active listening, while negative experiences centered around feeling stigmatized, invalidated, degraded, and coerced. Advice for nurses included being self-aware of preconceived or stigmatized notions, practicing empathy, listening, and humanity. The results of this study indicate the need for compassionate care, training to reduce nurse stigma, and adequate resources for nurses to mitigate emotional strain and burnout.

Exploring adaptations to the clinical reasoning cycle for forensic mental health nursing: A qualitative enquiry.

Forensic mental health nurses (FMHN) provide care to address the needs of people who have mental illnesses across a range of diverse settings. The Clinical Reasoning Cycle (CRC) has been identified as a potential framework to assist FMHNs; however, adaptations were required to reflect the unique nature of the clinical setting. This study aimed to explore adaptations made to determine suitability prior to implementation in practice. Nominal Group Technique was used to explore suggested adaptations determined from a previous study and reach a consensus on the changes. Fourteen senior nurses from a state-wide Forensic mental Health (FMH) service participated. A consensus was reached for two proposed changes. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Three main themes were interpreted from the data; FMH adaptations are warranted, the focus of the CRC, and who owns the cycle? Nurses in this study considered the need to include offence and risk issues due to the impact these factors have on the therapeutic relationship and cognitive bias; however, they also identified the need to focus on recovery-oriented care while engaging in clinical reasoning. Nurses in this study also expressed some reluctance for nursing to 'own' the model, due to concern that ownership may cause division among the team or result in inconsistency in care. However, some participant's suggested the CRC with adaptations assisted FMH nurses to articulate their specialist skills and knowledge to others and highlight the nursing contribution to care. Further work is needed to finalize adaptations with a focus on engaging the consumer carer workforce and interdisciplinary team.

A History of the Concept of Interpersonal Relations in Nursing Based on the Psychiatric Nursing Textbook Literature.

Many nurses would assume that interpersonal relations in nursing is a reasonably modern concept that originated with work of Hildagarde Peplau in 1952. However, there is evidence of concepts and ideas that resonate with interpersonal relations being evident in the psychiatric nursing textbook literature from its beginnings in 1885. The aim of this article is to provide an outline of ideas about interpersonal relations in nursing as presented in the psychiatric nursing textbook literature between 1885 and 2013 and trace the development of these ideas over that timeframe.This study uses Bevir's methodology known as The Logic of the History of Ideas. This is a post-analytical framework. Concepts related to interpersonal relation in nursing can be found throughout the psychiatric nursing textbook literature. The language may not be consistent with current language use but nevertheless, the ideas and concepts evident in the literature do demonstrate a consistent presence of thinking about interpersonal relations.

Trying to keep alive a non-traumatizing memory of the deceased: A meta-synthesis on the interpretation of loss in suicide-bereaved family members, their coping strategies and the effects on them.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Losing a family member due to suicide has been described as a traumatic experience, as suicide-bereaved relatives grapple to accept the particular character of death and the core elements of guilt, self-criticism and stigma it inflicts. There are long-term consequences for those who bereave due to the suicide of their beloved on, a high risk for mental and physical health problems included. Feelings of guilt and self-stigma influence help-seeking behaviour among suicide-bereaved individuals. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: Coping mechanisms adopted by suicide-bereaved individuals mediate the impact of suicide on their family, and especially on the quality of relationships among them. Supporting others in need can help alleviate guilt and self-blame for the suicide while it enables the bereaved to fulfil their need to keep a non-traumatizing, or even positive bond with the deceased. WHAT THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE ARE?: Nursing interventions to facilitate suicide-bereaved family members' participation in self-help support groups and promote their engagement in supporting others in need are important. Mental health nurses need to facilitate the replacement of dysfunctional coping strategies, such as substance use or self-blame with more adaptive ones focused on the personal needs of the bereaved, in order to help them embrace a non-traumatizing memory of the deceased while being in peace with the social environment. Screening for mental health problems and management of shame, self-stigma and guilt during the grieving period needs to be a priority in nursing interventions. ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION: Losing a family member to suicide is a traumatic experience which includes guilt and self-stigma. Yet, there is lack of data synthesis on the survivors' experience. AIM: A meta-synthesis of qualitative data on the interpretation of loss in suicide-bereaved family members, their coping strategies and the effects on family. METHOD: A meta-ethnographic synthesis following a systematic literature search and evaluation of the methodological quality of the selected studies was applied. RESULTS: The narratives of 326 individuals (parents/siblings/children/spouses) reported in sixteen studies were analysed. Trying to achieve a balance between keeping alive a non-traumatizing memory of the deceased, destigmatizing and liberating themselves from self-blame, self-criticism and guilt while being able to transform this experience into support towards others in need, was identified as the essence of the experience of the bereaved. DISCUSSION: Although suicide within a family is a traumatic experience, spiritual and existential implications among the bereaved have been reported; their coping mechanisms mediate the impact of suicide on family sustainability. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Nursing interventions to facilitate adoption of coping strategies centred on keeping a non-traumatizing memory of the deceased among the bereaved and promote their participation in self-help groups and activities to support others in need are important.