Emotional encounters with stroke:an ethnographic study of nurse-patient interactions in a stroke rehabilitation unit.

Stroke is the third most common cause of death in the United Kingdom and the single greatest cause of severe disability. The effects of stroke are complex but the impact on emotional wellbeing is arguably one of the most problematic aspects of stroke rehabilitation to address. Nurses play a key role in stroke rehabilitation and the ways in which they interact with and respond to the emotional experience of stroke, may be crucial to the well-being of the patient and their relatives.

Informed by an interactionist theory of emotion, the aims of this interpretive ethnographic study were to explore the emotional experiences of persons affected by a stroke (patients and relatives), nurses’ interpretations of these experiences and how they used them to inform and influence person-to-person interactions during the period of hospital-based rehabilitation. Taking a case study approach, a purposive sample of 10 cases was selected, with each ‘case’ comprising a patient, their closest relative and the nurses who provide their care. Data were constructed through participant observation, interviews and documentary review.

Data analysis revealed that through a complex interplay of core beliefs, personal and professional attributes and interpersonal skills, nurses enabled patients and relatives to access and utilise their own personal attributes in order to recover from stroke. An emergent relationship model explains how the relationships built and sustained between nurses, patients and relatives during their encounters with each other on a stroke rehabilitation unit are central to creating a positive culture of caring which promotes emotional wellbeing and aids recovery. The findings have implications for policy, clinical practice, health care education and research.