The purpose of this research is to find out the role of nursing support for the family of schizophrenia patient’s during initial acute hospitalization admission. The focus of this study is on 4 expert nurses who have had more than 5 years experience working at a psychiatry acute hospital ward. We conducted semi-structured interviews with the nurses and then conducted qualitative and inductive analysis. From our results, we extracted 6 categories which are; “listen and respond to emotional anguish”, “persuade for the acceptance of psychiatric care”, “understand the family’s ability to deal with the patient”, “keep a suitable distance between patient and family”, “lay the foundation for cooperative relations with the family”, and “guard against isolation in the family”. We also extracted 24 subcategories. The expert nurses encouraged the family to understand the nature of schizophrenia, encouraged　them to cooperate with the treatments all the while supporting them to keep their relationship between the patient and family strong. At the same time, they were listening to and responding to the family’s emotional anguish during the initial onset of psychiatric disorders on their family member.

本研究の目的は，統合失調症で初回入院となった患者の家族に対する支援を確立するために，入院初期の患者の家族に対する精神科病棟看護師の役割を明らかにすることである。対象は，精神科急性期病棟に５年以上勤務経験があるエキスパートナース４名である。半構成的面接調査を行い，質的帰納的に分析した結果，精神科病棟へ初回入院となった統合失調症の患者の家族に対する看護師の役割には，６のカテゴリ【情緒的な苦悩の受け止め】【精神科医療の受け入れの促し】【家族がもつ対処力の把握】【患者と家族の適切な距離の保持】【家族との協力関係の基礎づくり】【家族の孤立を防ぐこと】と24のサブカテゴリが抽出された。エキスパートナースは，統合失調症という慢性疾患の始まりに対する家族の情緒的な苦悩や対処の仕方を受け止めながら，患者と家族の関係性が保持できるように支援していく中で，家族が精神疾患を理解し治療の協力者になれるように働きかけていた。