Identity Problems and the Adaptation of Nurses to Severely Burned Children
SUSAN QUINBY M.A.1, and
NORMAN R. BERNSTEIN M.D.2
1 Chief Psychologist, Shriners Burns Institute, 51 Blossom St., Boston, Mass. 02114
2 Director of Psychiatry, Shriners Burns Institute, 51 Blossom St., Boston, Mass. 02114
Caring for burned children presents a difficult challenge to the personal and professional identity of nurses. The authors studied the adjustment of new nurses in the field—their initial idealized expectations, their conflict between these goals and reality, and their resolution of this conflict. The nurses realized the unreality of their initial goals and gained a maturity that enabled them to better help the children and to enhance their own self-esteem.
