S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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Yet despite this, remote nurses remain professional, insightfully compassionate and stoic: Keep in mind that these people [mental health patients] are unwell, mentally unwell. They would not be doing this towards us … if they were well … When they’re back on their medications, they’re not violent towards us [remote nurses]. [T17, p. 9] When violence and aggression becomes unacceptable, nurses do have to resort to extreme measures: If they became too threatening, we’d have to get them out the door and lock ourselves in until they calmed down or went away. [T3, p. 4] [Robustness/Resourcefulness] Their stoicism was evident when nurses were questioned about whether they ever took sick leave as a result of mental health presentations. All nurses responded ‘No’ (e.g., T2, p. 8) [Robustness]. Instead, remote nurses employ inventive methods to look after their own mental health. All nurse participants reported regularly distancing themselves from the issues of working in the remote community and not being on-call: We save up your days off and go bush, camping, fishing or go to the nearest town and chill out away from the place … Try and go with some of the other nurses, as a group. [T29, p4] [Resourcefulness] 7.2.3 Psychiatrists Psychiatric advice and assistance is sought from two primary sources: psychiatrists and mental health nurses. Psychiatrists are positioned in the health actors’ arena due to their critical role in delivering mental healthcare (see Figure 6.8). Psychiatric relationships