Transforming nurse–patient relationships—A qualitative study of nurse self‐disclosure in mental health care

Aims and objectives To describe what and why nurses self‐disclose to patients in mental health care. Background Self‐disclosure is common, but controversial and difficult to delineate. Extant research suggests that self‐disclosure might have several potentially beneficial effects on therapeutic alliance and treatment outcome for patients in mental health care, but results are often mixed and limited by definitional inconsistencies. Design Multi‐site study with purposive sampling and source triangulation. Method Qualitative descriptive study including data from 16 nurses taking part in participant observation, individual interviews and focus group interviews. Results Separate analyses resulted in four themes addressing the research question of what nurses self‐disclose, and one main theme and four subthemes addressing why nurses self‐disclose. The content of self‐disclosure was captured in the four themes: Immediate family, Interests and activities, Life experiences and Identity. In addition, results showed that disclosures were common among the nurses. Self‐disclosure's potential to transform the nurse–patient relationship, making it more open, honest, close, reciprocal and equal, was the overarching reason why nurses shared personal information. The nurses also chose to self‐disclose to share existential and everyday sentiments, to give real‐life advice, because it felt natural and responsive to patients’ question to do so. Conclusion Nurse self‐disclosure is common and cover a variety of personal information. Nurses have several reasons for choosing to self‐disclose, most of which are connected to improving the nurse–patient relationship. Relevance to clinical practice Self‐disclosure controversy can make it difficult for nurses to know whether they should share personal information or not. Insights into the diversity of and reasons for nurse self‐disclosure can help with deliberations on self‐disclosure.