Clients' perceptions of nurse self-disclosure of previous personal experience with depression on the therapeutic relationship: a qualitative descriptive study

There is a paucity of literature on nurse self-disclosure. The purpose of this study was to describe clients’ perceptions of nurse self-disclosure of personal lived experience with depression in the therapeutic relationship. This study employed a qualitative descriptive design using clinical vignettes to obtain the perceptions of nurse self-disclosure of lived experience with depression from fifteen participants. Three themes emerged from the results: ‘Experiencing self-disclosure in a context that creates trust’, ‘Creating connection through understanding and empathy’, and ‘Feeling hopeful that recovery is possible’. A unique finding of this study was that participants’ perceptions of self-disclosure varied with the level of intimacy of the disclosure. This study offers preliminary implications regarding how self-disclosure of lived experience with depression may be adopted in clinical nursing practice. Implications for future practice, policy, research, theory and education are also discussed.