Bridget O’Connell and Maura Dowling report on a study that gathered nurses’ views on working with this client group and suggest ways to improve care

Aim To explore the experience of psychiatric nurses who work in the community caring for clients with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Method A qualitative design was adopted. Purposeful sampling was used and ten community psychiatric nurses underwent semi-structured interview. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results The nurses’ understanding of BPD and their experiences of caring for individuals with the condition were varied. Participants identified a number of specific skills required when working with clients with BPD, but the absence of formal clinical supervision to support nurses was a particular difficulty, and training on BPD was lacking.

Conclusions Although community psychiatric nurses found working with these individuals challenging, they also reported on the rewards in seeing clients making progress.