Managing the demands of the preregistration mental health nursing programme: The views of students with mental health conditions (original) (raw)
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Th e prevalence and consequences of mental health challenges amongst university students is now widely acknowledged and university staff provide an important but often hidden service to these students. While completing a university degree is important to the student's long-term outcomes there remains a paucity of literature on the support role provided to these students by staff . To contribute to knowledge in this area, a qualitative exploratory study was completed with academic and professional staff at two Australian universities in 2013. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with 26 participants to document their experiences and to identify the barriers and enablers to their support role to students.
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Mental illness affects one in five Canadians and this number is higher among post-secondary students (Canadian Mental Health Association, 2012). Over the last three decades, studies have sought to determine how many students have mental health concerns in hope of substantiating the need for more support and funding for mental health services on campus. Knowledge gained from these studies is often seeped in a bio-medical perspective of mental health and illness, where the students' mental health concerns are problematized and the target of psy interventions. What is lacking is an understanding of the university students' lived experience, a personcentered understanding that sheds light on what supports or threatens students' mental well-being while illuminating the socio, political and economic realities that may be at play in the lived experience of students with mental health concerns. This research project has addressed this gap by using interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the lived experience of baccalaureate nursing students in the university and critically appraise their understanding of their lived experience. This research concludes that the rising rates of mental health concerns are the distillate of the psy complex and the by-product of student stress within the university and not merely a problem inherent to a student as the psy complex purports. This new knowledge may serve as a foundation for, meaningful mental health services on campus and, the development of nursing curricula that is sensitive to the lived experience of nursing students with mental health concerns, one that fosters mental well-being and recovery.
Nurse Education Today, 2010
Concerns have been expressed about inadequate mental health content in generic pre-registration nursing curricula in Australia. These have led to claims new graduates are inadequately prepared to care for patients with mental health issues. The Mental Health Nurse Education Taskforce set up for the purpose of the project by the Australian Health Ministers' Advisory Council, carried out a national exploration of mental health content in pre-registration nursing curricula in order to develop a framework for including mental health in future pre-registration courses. This paper summarises the Taskforce's report, and presents a critical commentary on several aspects, of the Taskforce's report. The project comprised a literature review, a national survey, national consultations, and advice from an Expert Reference Group. The report sets out a framework, which included the core values underpinning learning and teaching, learning outcomes, learning and teaching principles, and benchmarks for inclusion of mental health content in curricula. It recommended that a national approach needed to be taken to accreditation of curricula. This, together with greater collaboration between universities and clinical agencies, and the adoption of innovative strategies to secure clinical places, will help ensure a consistent adoption of the framework in each state and territory.
Health education, 2022
The purpose of this paper is to examine how faculty staff on Health and Social Care Programmes support students with mental health issues. Design methodology and approach The study used a qualitative survey design to gain in-depth information on faculty staff experiences. Seventy-one faculty staff at two universities in the South East of England out of an eligible population of one hundred and fifteen staff responded to an anonymous online questionnaire which were thematically analysed. Findings The findings indicated that faculty staff faced uncertainties in providing support to students with mental health needs. They reported tensions between their academic, professional and pastoral roles. There was a wide recognition that supporting students was physically and emotionally demanding for faculty staff and especially challenging when their roles and expectations were unclear. This was compounded by lack of explicit guidelines and an apparent severed connection between faculty staff and student support services. Practical implications A need for clearly defined roles and responsibilities for faculty staff in supporting students with mental health needs including a review of their pastoral role were identified. The study reinforces the need for effective collaborative arrangements and collective decision making and clearer procedures in the planning and implementation of students' personal support plans. A concerted effort into adopting a transpersonal approach which incorporates mental health staff awareness training, restorative spaces for reflection and supportive pathways for faculty staff.
Mental health nursing education in preregistration nursing curricula: a national report
International journal of mental health nursing, 2011
The Australian Mental Health Nurse Education Taskforce conducted a national examination of mental health content of preregistration nursing curricula in order to develop a framework for including mental health in future curricula. This paper presents the qualitative findings from national consultations about the framework. Content analysis of data was undertaken, and the findings show four key themes. First, the mental health content of curricula should be increased; second, overall mental health nursing leadership should be strengthened; third, mental health consumer participation should be increased in all aspects of curricula; and finally, a repository should be established for mental health teaching resources.
Becoming a mental health nurse; A three year longitudinal study
This longitudinal case series study explores how students' conceptions of 'mental health nursing' changed whilst on a three-year preregistration Mental Health Nursing programme. The study was carried out in two university nursing schools in the South East of England and this paper reports a detailed analysis of 6 individual case studies. The researchers utilised Novak's approach to concept mapping to elicit students' personal knowledge structures, which were explored further using semi-structured individual qualitative interviews. The maps were analysed by looking at their gross morphology to interpret changes over time into types of learning achieved and the associated interview data were analysed using thematic content analysis. Results from analysis of the map structures suggest that whilst four of the selected students learned deeply, one participant learned superficially and one appeared not to learn at all. The associated interview data provides an interesting insight into the students' reflective narratives on the process of learning. The findings also demonstrate further evidence of the practicability of using Novakian concept maps to self-prompt qualitative research interviews. Implications for the professional education of Mental Health Nurses are discussed.
Learning from the world of mental health care: nursing students' narratives
Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 2011
• This study was conducted among 20 Finnish nursing students and describes what it was like as a trainee in a mental health placement. During the practice, the students first selected events which were critical to them and then analysed these experiences by writing narratives that were one to two pages in length. These narratives were analysed and the findings were: 1. Initially, when commencing the practice at the unit, the students had prejudices and negative attitudes towards mental illnesses and psychiatric settings, but their opinions gradually changed. 2. This change took place because the students were actively exposed to challenging and complicated care situations and patient encounters in which they had to face their own emotions and test coping skills. • The findings were verified through three consistent learning storylines: selfawareness and self-esteem, the nurse-patient relationship and mental health care methods. These three storylines characterized what students learned during the mental health placement: their self-awareness and self-esteem increased, they deepened interpersonal skills and learned new nursing methods. Our findings have implications for the teacher role, mentoring and school placement collaboration within nursing education. It seems that favourable learning results take place during the placement, if nursing students have a feeling of belonging, are engaged in encouraging mentorship, are actively involved in patient care and have space for reflection on feelings and emotions.
Issues in mental health nursing, 2018
The stigma associated with a diagnosis of mental illness is well known yet has not reduced significantly in recent years. Health professionals, including nurses, have been found to share similar negative attitudes towards people with labelled with mental illness as the general public. The low uptake of mental health nursing as a career option reflects these stigmatised views and is generally regarded as one of the least popular areas of in which to establish a nursing career. The aim of the current project was to examine nursing students' attitudes towards the concept of mental illness and mental health nursing across four European countries (Ireland, Finland, Norway and the Netherlands), and Australia, using the Opening Minds Scale and the Mental Health Nurse Education survey. The surveys were distributed to students prior to the commencement of the mental health theory component. Attitudes towards mental health nursing were generally favourable. Differences in opinion were evi...