[The goals of nursing in inpatient psychosomatic medicine - an empirical approach].

Nursing plays an essential part in the acute psychosomatic inpatient treatment. The goals, which the nurses aim at while taking care of their patients, have, however seldom been investigated. This first systematic inquiry into the goals, which care at the clinic for psychosomatic medicine bears in mind, was carried out on a sample of 84 patients. These goals were evaluated and compared with different common outcome measures. Carers, first of all, aim at goals referring to the symptom, such as improving the patients' eating habits. Apart from that they mainly focus on goals not directly connected to the patients' physical condition, such as helping to improve the patients' self esteem. In some cases the nurses' estimate concerning the success of the treatment corresponds to that of the patients' to a greater extent than to that of the patients' personal therapist. Nursing in inpatient psychosomatic medicine extends much further than the demands of care normally imply. The knowledge concerning the patients' mental condition, which the nurses have according to this inquiry, ought to be used within the treatment.