Associate Professor Graeme Browne

Purpose: To examine nursing students' perceptions of Experts by Experience impact on theoretical and practical learning. Design and Methods: Qualitative exploratory study involving focus groups with undergraduate nursing students from five European countries and Australia. Data were analyzed thematically. Findings: Participants described positive impacts as: bridging the theory and practice gap through first-hand experience, including sub-themes: bringing theory to life; can't be taught any other way, and innovative teaching methods fueling curiosity. Relevance to Clinical Practice: Integrating theory and practice is key for quality mental health nursing practice. Experts by experience can potentially contribute to reducing this enduring gap.

Objectives: This integrative review aimed to synthesize studies that investigated the effects of acupressure on sleep quality, depression, anxiety, and agitation in older people, and to describe the acupressure procedures and techniques applied in the included studies. Methods: A literature search was conducted using electronic databases including CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, and MEDLINE. The inclusion criteria for the review were studies examining the effect of acupressure in older people aged 60¿years and above, measured the outcomes for sleep quality, depression, anxiety or agitation, applied body acupressure, and published in English language. The exclusion criteria were studies using auricular acupoints only, and articles published in any language other than English. Methodological quality of studies was assessed using the critical appraised tools developed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The information about study design, findings, and description of acupressure intervention were extracted, summarized, and synthesized. Results: A total of 255 articles were identified from the search and as well one article from cross-references. From there, a total of 19 studies were included in this review. Nine studies consistently showed positive effects of acupressure on sleep quality, and four studies consistently showed that acupressure reduced depression. The outcomes of acupressure on anxiety and agitation showed inconsistent findings, in which three studies measured anxiety and five studies measured agitation. There was also variation of acupressure techniques applied in the reviewed studies. Conclusion: This review found some emerging evidences that acupressure can be beneficial for older people who suffer from sleep problems and depression. Use of specific acupressure points, with standardized acupressure treatment protocols, may improve sleep quality and possibly psychological wellbeing of older people. Future research with well-designed mixed method studies are required to produce stronger evidence, as well as in-depth understanding of acupressure intervention in aged care context.

Expert by experience involvement in mental health education for health professional programmes has increased in recent decades. The related literature has articulated the benefits, and changes in attitudes have been measured in some studies. Less attention has been devoted to ways this learning approach could be improved. The aim of this paper is to present the nursing students perspectives on how Expert by Experience input into nursing curricula could be enhanced. Qualitative exploratory research was undertaken, involving focus groups with students who had completed a mental health learning module co-produced by Experts by Experience and nurse academics. Results show two main themes: getting the structure right, and changes to content and approach. Some student responses could directly influence changes to the learning module. In other instances, responses indicate the need to better prepare students of the value of lived experience knowledge in its own right, rather than adjunct to more traditional methods of education. These findings are important in encouraging reflection on how future learning modules co-produced by Experts by Experience and Mental Health Nursing academics can be refined and better articulated.

Background: Although, person centred care has for a long time been an important approach to nursing care, it is often not a reality in the clinical environment. The focus of health research has, until recently, been on the physical aspects of a persons¿ illness and this has influenced how care is delivered. There is a need to broaden the focus from the illness to the person who is ill. A holistic approach to the persons¿ social and cultural experience of their illness will aid health care professions to provide person centred care. This paper will make the argument that narrative inquiry is a well suited to health care research in general and nursing research in particular as it focuses its inquiry on the individual person's experience of their illness ¿ ¿what matters¿ from the person's point of view. Narrative inquiry explores the narrative from a temporal, social and spatial view. Conclusions: There is a need to find what is important from the patients¿ ¿point of view¿ to optimise care. Narrative Inquiry is a methodology often used in education and sociology. It is a gentle relational methodology that has the capability to uncover what is important to the person in their situation. The research findings are presented narratively, that is, informally and engagingly for the consumer of the research.

Mental Health Nurses have a long tradition of delivering talk-based interventions across a range of clinical settings. Despite this, Mental Health Nurses receive limited recognition of this contribution. This paper presents findings from a study that explored Mental Health Nurses' experience of delivering talk-based therapies in an inpatient rehabilitation setting. This study uses semistructured interviews and a phenomenological approach to explore eight Mental Health Nurses' experience. Themes emerging included that: mental health nursing is a talk-based therapy in its own right, talk-based therapy was part of everyday nursing care on the floor and integrated talk-based therapy enhanced recovery opportunities for consumers. However, a further theme was that there were tensions around providing talk-based therapy conflicted with other roles including unit management and the role of nurses in controlling challenging behaviours. This study found that Mental Health Nurses, in this setting, are offering talk-based therapy to the people they care for. The findings of this study have implications for research: there needs to be a larger study investigating nurses' use of talk-based therapy in inpatient settings. If, as the authors expect that, it is found that mental health nurses are offering these therapies generally in inpatient settings, this has serious implications for postgraduate education in Mental Health Nursing policy in terms of recognition that this is happening and finding ways to support nurses to do this well. There also needs to be further research in the best ways to offer talk-based therapy in these settings.

Background: Emotional intelligence (EI) is associated with a wide range of personal, professional and social benefits with numerous applications evident for nursing education and clinical practice. Despite growing support for increasing the focus on EI in nursing and nurse education, empirical evidence for the effectiveness of training to increase EI is sparse. The aim with this study was to test the effect of a brief EI training program for registered nurses. Methods: We conducted a cross-site quasi-experimental study measuring nurses¿ EI pre- (T1) and three months post- (T2) EI training with a matched (untrained) control group (total n = 60). EI training consisted of a five-hour workshop, a 30-minute one-on-one feedback session, and an individualised follow-up reminder sent via SMS. Results: Training resulted in a significant increase in EI scores over baseline levels for the trained group while scores for the control group did not increase. Conclusion: This pilot study has provided clear evidence of the applicability and efficacy of a low-cost training intervention for nursing staff in a real world setting.

New graduate nurses have reported negative experiences in mental health settings, particularly during the transitional period of practice. Previous research has focused on addressing the undergraduate preparation of nurses for practice instead of the experiences and outcomes of the transitional period. Recently, there has been growing interest in exploring the experiences of graduate nurses in transition and the implementation of promising interventions to facilitate new graduates' assimilation to practice. Despite these initiatives, the overall shortage of mental health nurses continues to rise, and graduates still report negative experiences in the mental health setting. The purpose of this study was to identify and explore the experiences of new graduate nurses in mental health services in their first year of clinical practice. An integrative review was conducted with 22 studies sourced from the CINAHL, PubMed, Scopus, and PsychINFO electronic databases, as well as through hand-searching the literature. Literature review findings have highlighted negative clinical experiences and increased attrition from mental health services for graduate nurses. These experiences were closely linked with the changes in the training of mental health nurses, role ambiguity, inadequate clinical preceptorship, encountering the reality of mental health services, and the role of health services in transitioning graduate nurses into clinical practice. Established research into organizational cultures demonstrates that negative organizational outcomes result from negative workplace experiences. Therefore, further research into new graduate nurses' experiences of mental health nursing and its culture might clarify the reasons why they might not be attracted to the discipline and/or are leaving early in their career.

Public sector organizations have been shown to have high levels of workplace bullying, despite widespread adoption of zero-tolerance policy. Given the level of harm that stems from bullying, it has been suggested that it might be one of the most serious problems facing modern organizations. The qualitative findings from a large cross sectional study of public servants in Australia are reported in the present study. The results highlight palpable mental distress and illness stemming from exposure to workplace bullying. This distress was exacerbated by failures in prohibitive workplace procedures. Reporting bullying through formal organization processes did not lead to resolution of the problem; it instead highlighted feelings of powerlessness and mistrust. In light of the findings, we suggest that an alternative discourse is required, one that gives attention to enhancing employee resilience and self-healing behaviours to the emotional trauma of workplaces. Organizations might be better placed investing resources in fostering the resilience and emotional intelligence of their workforce, rather than continuing to invest resources in prohibitive policies that fail to address the problem. Employees should be supported to prioritize responsibility for their own mental health, rather than an overreliance on organizational responses.

Objective This study examined data recorded by one urban publicly funded opioid-replacement therapy clinic (from 2009 to 2011) to identify whether these data could be used to inform the rostering of clinicians more effectively to improve access to treatment. Methods Data analysis incorporated descriptive and inferential methods. Results There were trends in the times of the year consumers seek opioid-replacement therapy, similarity and differences between gender requests for treatment and variation in consumer wait time on triage. Conclusions National reporting of opioid-replacement therapy triages would help gain a better understanding of the number of people in need of treatment. If opioid-replacement therapy providers monitored consumer triages, they could roster more effectively, have gender-specific clinicians available, acknowledge and inform consumers of wait time on triage and allow re-orientation of services to lower wait time. © 2014 AHHA.

The Mental Health Nurse Incentive Program (MHNIP) is a Commonwealth Government funded scheme that supports people living with a mental illness. Despite its significance, the program has received little attention from researchers nor critical discussion within the published work. This paper first critically examines the MHNIP from the contexts of identities, autonomy, and capabilities of mental health nurses (MHN) and then reports on findings from a qualitative study that explored the experiences of staff working in the MHNIP. Key findings from this qualitative study include four main themes indicating that both the program and the nurses working within it are addressing the unmet needs of people living with a mental illness. They achieve these ends by adopting holistic and consumer-centred approaches and by providing a wide range of therapeutic interventions. As well, the MHN in this study valued the freedom and autonomy of their practice outside public health services and the respect received from colleagues working in other disciplines. Findings suggest that MHN within the study were experienced as having autonomous identities and roles that may be in contrast to the restrictive understandings of MHN capability within the program's funding rules. © 2013 Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc.

Problem: Obesity in pregnancy is associated with an increased incidence of maternal and foetal morbidity and mortality, from conditions like preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, preterm birth and stillbirth. Between 20% and 25% of pregnant women in Australia are presenting to their first antenatal appointment with a body mass index (BMI) =30kg/m2, defined as obesity in pregnancy. These figures are concerning for midwifery and obstetric staff directly involved in the clinical care of these women and their families. In the absence of national or state clinical practice guidelines for managing the risks for obese pregnant women, a local quality improvement project was conducted. Aim: To plan, implement, and evaluate the impact of an alternative clinical care pathway for pregnant women with a BMI=35kg/m2 at their first antenatal visit. Project setting: The project was undertaken in the antenatal clinic of a rural referral hospital in NSW, Australia. Subjects: Eighty-two women with a BMI=35kg/m2 were eligible for the alternative care pathway, offered between January and December 2010. Intervention: The alternative care pathway included the following options, in addition to usual care: written information on obesity in pregnancy, referral to a dietitian, early plus repeat screening for gestational diabetes, liver and renal function pathology tests, serial self-weighing, serial foetal growth ultrasounds, and a pre-labour anaesthetic consultation. Findings: Despite being educated on the risk associated with obesity in pregnancy, women did not take up the offers of dietetic support or self-weighing at each antenatal visit. Ultrasounds were well received and most women underwent gestational diabetes screening.