Psychiatric nursing practice based on the recovery-oriented approach in patients with bipolar disorder: A mixed design example

Aim: This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of psychiatric nursing practice based on the recovery-oriented approach in patients who had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and receiving outpatient treatment. Materials and methods: In the study, the nested mixed design (embedded intervention), one of the mixed method designs, was used. The study sample consisted of 34 patients who presented to the psychiatry outpatient clinic of a state hospital in the central county of Aydın Province with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder according to DSM-5 between May 2021 and October 2022. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used in the quantitative dimension of the study. Experimental group patients were administered the Psychiatric Nursing Practice Based on the Recovery-Oriented Approach. This practice is a rehabilitation program based on the personal recovery paradigm, which consists of structured sessions and an experiential interactional process. Quantitative data were collected using a personal information form and the Mental Health Recovery Scale and analyzed using the chi-square test and t-test on the SPSS software package. In the qualitative dimension of the study, the study group consisted of 14 patients in the experimental group. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with patients in the experimental group using the document analysis technique, and they were analyzed by using content analysis. Results: The mean post-intervention score of the participants in the experimental group was found to be statistically significantly higher than the mean post-test score of those in the control group (t=5.123, p<0.001). As a result of the content analysis, two themes were elicited from the data: (1) 'Recovery' from an Individual Perspective and (2) 'the Effectiveness of the Implementation. Conclusion: These results showed that the psychiatric nursing practice based on the recovery-oriented approach was effective in increasing recovery in patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It is recommended that this practice should be used in the treatment of patients with bipolar disorder.