Breaking down the stigma of mental health nursing: A qualitative study reflecting opinions from western australian nurses

This study adopts a new way of working whereby we gathered opinions from current mental health nurses focusing on why they originally wanted to work in mental health What are the implications for practice? New findings presented in this paper will guide improvements in nurse training, policy development for mental health services and improve recruitment of the next generation of mental health nurses The findings provide a strong message that in order to entice others to work in mental health, we need to first address breaking down the stigma related to mental health nursing AbstractIntroductionA lack of understanding surrounding the role of mental health nursing is associated with recruitment and retention challenges. Additional complexities include stigma related to the role, an ageing workforce and dearth of graduates keen to pursue this career.Scientific RationalPrevious research has focused on why nurses leave the profession which has not provided necessary solutions. There is a need to instead explore why nurses originally chose a career in mental health.Aim of studyThis qualitative study focused on opinions and experiences of existing mental health nurses to determine what could be performed to entice nurses to choose mental health.MethodsA cross‐sectional design involving a brief interview was conducted with 192 Western Australian nurses from one public mental health service.ResultsThematic analysis revealed an overarching theme “breaking down stigma” and add...
Source: Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing - Category: Nursing Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research