Religion, assessment and the problem of 'normative uncertainty' for mental health student nurses: a critical incident-informed qualitative interview study.
Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing October 1, 2015 A M Bassett, C Baker, S Cross
Mental health nursing students and their lecturers struggle to distinguish between a person's genuine religious or cultural beliefs and psychopathological symptoms such as delusions or hallucinations. Based on ethnographic interviews and focus groups with 36 second- and third-year students and seven lecturers, four key challenges emerged: telling delusions from religious belief, telling hallucinations from religious experience, understanding the clinical consequences of misjudgment, and applying religion-specific knowledge. Misinterpreting religious expression as pathology risks inaccurate clinical assessments. The authors suggest that critical incident analysis could help nurses recognize the religious dimensions of mental distress and improve the accuracy and person-centeredness of assessments.