‘Your experiences were your tools’. How personal experience of mental health problems informs mental health nursing practice

This study moves the discussion of the state of mental health nurses’ mental health further towards the recovery and well‐being focus of contemporary mental health care, where ‘expertise by experience’ is highly valued. What are the implications for practice? We must address the taboo of disclosure within clinical nursing practice and debate the extent to which personal and professional boundaries are negotiated during clinical encounters. AbstractIntroduction‘Expertise by experience’ is a highly valued element of service delivery in recovery‐oriented mental health care, but is unacknowledged within the mental health nursing literature.AimTo explore the extent and influence of mental health professionals’ personal experience of mental ill health on clinical practice.MethodTwenty‐seven mental health nurses with their own personal experience of mental ill health were interviewed about how their personal experience informed their mental health nursing practice, as part of a sequential mixed methods study.ResultsThe influence of personal experience in nursing work was threefold: first, through overt disclosure; second, through the ‘use of the self as a tool’; and third, through the formation of professional nursing identity.DiscussionMental health nurses’ experience of mental illness was contextualized by other life experiences and by particular therapeutic relationships and clinical settings. In previous empirical studies, nurses have cited personal ex...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: Original Article Source Type: research