"The Hard‐to‐Assess": Suicide Assessment Situations as Experienced by Psychiatric Healthcare Professionals.
Aim: To explore what psychiatric healthcare personnel experience as challenging in suicide risk assessment situations and how they manage them. Design: A qualitative inductive design with a latent approach was employed. Method: A total of 12 volunteer interviews were conducted with psychiatric nurse...
| Published in: | Perspectives in Psychiatric Care Vol. 2026; pp. 1 - 12 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
| Format: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Published: |
Wiley-Blackwell
8/25/2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=196442326&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 196442326 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00315990 22L jtl: Perspectives in Psychiatric Care issn: 00315990 maglogo: Y pubinfo: dt: 8/25/2026 vid: 2026 pid: 480 pub: Wiley-Blackwell place: Malden, Massachusetts artinfo: ui: 196442326 196442326 196442326 10.1155/ppc/6652985 196442326 ppf: 1 ppct: 11 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: C – @attributes: type: P tig: atl: "The Hard‐to‐Assess": Suicide Assessment Situations as Experienced by Psychiatric Healthcare Professionals. aug: au: Ovox, Säidi Margot Idun Elovsdotter Lundquist, Cecilia Olofsson, Fredrik Torbrant, Anna Wärdig, Frida Wärdig, Rikard Ramos-Pichardo, Juan Diego affil: Division of Nursing and Reproductive Health,, Department of Health,, Medicine and Caring Sciences,, Linköping University,, Linköping, Sweden, liu.se sug: subj: Mental Health Personnel Psychosocial Factors Attitude of Health Personnel Evaluation Suicide Risk Factors Suicidal Ideation Risk Assessment Human Sweden Male Female Adult Middle Age Qualitative Studies Semi-Structured Interview Audiorecording Thematic Analysis Psychiatric Nurses Psychiatrists Patients Severity of Illness Narratives Job Experience Psychiatric Care Accountability Honesty Intuition Adult: 19-44 years Middle Aged: 45-64 years Male Female ab: Aim: To explore what psychiatric healthcare personnel experience as challenging in suicide risk assessment situations and how they manage them. Design: A qualitative inductive design with a latent approach was employed. Method: A total of 12 volunteer interviews were conducted with psychiatric nurses, general nurses, and psychiatrists working in both outpatient and inpatient psychiatric care. The data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: Two themes emerged from the analysis: "the patient within the assessment situation" and "professionals" approaches and strategies. Hard‐to‐assess patients are associated with bringing a masked sense of reality into the assessment situation. Factors that complicate suicide risk assessment could be influenced by the patient's degree of illness in terms of specific diagnoses, life story, and previous experiences in psychiatric care. With experience and an understanding of the distribution of responsibility between the patient and themselves, healthcare professionals can form honest and real assessment situations in which accountability through awareness could counteract the dynamic inherent in masking reality. Conclusion: The assessment is complicated, since the hard‐to‐assess patient brings a sensation of "escaping reality" into the situation, which makes assessment difficult. In this case, the ability to perceive the patient beyond what is seen and heard becomes pivotal. Gut feeling, resulting from experience and the ability to perceive the patient, is crucial to forming a solid foundation for the assessment. Both intuition and consciously chosen techniques are identified as being used in tandem. Implication for the Profession and/or Patient Care: This study seeks to enhance the management of daily clinical practice for professionals handling suicide risk assessment situations by outlining the implications during clinical encounters. Reporting Method: The study was conducted in accordance with COREQ guidelines. Patient or Public Contribution: Psychiatric healthcare professionals contributed to this study by sharing their experiences through interviews. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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