Agency and Addiction in a Harm Reduction Paradigm: French Nurses' Perspectives

French psychiatric nurses' perspectives on individuals addicted to drugs and their treatments are influenced by French socio-cultural norms. In this study, steps of the ethnographic method were used to elicit the intertwining of French professional and cultural perspectives on drug addiction. Emergent themes from nurses' interviews and cultural participant-observations suggest that drug addiction management in France's harm reduction paradigm challenges nurses' beliefs about addicted individuals' agency and conformity to treatment goals, and is influenced by European Union membership, changes in health care, drugs and demographics. Novel nursing strategies emergent from these themes might be applicable in other cultural contexts.