How does stigma influence mental health nursing identities? An ethnographic study of the meaning of stigma for nursing role identities in two Belgian Psychiatric Hospitals

Stigma constitutes a threat for professionals who work in mental health care, through their association with mental illness as a discrediting attribute. Together with nurses’ unclear self-perception, recent insights suggest that stigma may inform the apparent identity crisis within the mental health nursing profession. This article explores how stigma may give meaning to mental health nursing identities. The nursing role is built upon official...