"We try our best to offer them the little that we can" coping strategies of Ghanaian community psychiatric nurses: a qualitative descriptive study.

Individual coping strategies are often used by community psychiatric nurses in daily practice. The participants identified personal coping strategies as critical interventions to manage stress and to decrease their risk for burnout. However, community psychiatric nurses must develop.personal-mastery in various coping strategies to care for themselves, as well as motivate them despite the challenging working environment. The individual coping strategies adopted by community psychiatric nurses was not only helped them deliver care, but also protected their clients so people would not label them as 'mental patients.' Collectively, the four strategies reported in this study need to be developed into a cohesive and comprehensive intervention.