Nurses' rejection and acceptance of patients. A study of a chronic hemodialysis unit.

A questionnaire used to study the phenomenon of rejection of psychiatric patients by the staff was applied to the nurses of a chronic hemodialysis unit. The main findings of the present study are: (a) High emotional involvment of staff in patients. (b) The tendency to reject was much stronger when compared to the staff of the psychiatric unit. (c) The nurses' tendency to reject patients did not correlate to personality measures used in the study (ATDP and Rotter). (d) Although the amount of rejection varied between the nurses, there was a very definite team opinion about which patients are accepted and rejected. (3) Two factors seem to influence the acceptance/rejection of patients by the staff: patient's adjustment and patients' actual behaviour in the unit. It was suggested that the high involvement as well as high rejection found in the staff is one of the main sources of stress for the nurses. It was further suggested that some of the hostility is caused by frustration of nurses' expectations about patients' adjustment and behaviour.