Mood and anxiety disorders

This chapter presents an overview of different mood disorders, focusing specifically on anxiety, depression and bipolar disorders. The chapter begins by exploring some of the complex features of mood before examining each of these three main disorders in some depth. Theories of causation and best available therapeutic interventions re discussed , as well as the role that mental health nurses can play in facilitated comfort, restoring homeostasis and promoting well-being and recovery

Implementing clinical supervision for psychiatric nurses : the importance of education

Increasing recognition of the potential value of clinical supervision for nurses has led to increased attention to introducing this initiative. However, a review of the literature suggests that the implementation of clinical supervision has occurred in the absence of clear guidelines or policy direction. Similarly, while the importance of education and training is acknowledged, the authors note the absence of clarity or consistency in documented implementation strategies. This paper focuses on Victoria, Australia, where the State Government provided significant funding to introduce clinical supervision throughout the State. The study setting is a mental health service in rural Victoria. In-depth interviews were held with senior nurses and members of the clinical supervision implementation committee (n=9). In relation to education and training, three main themes emerged: Identifying the need, making it happen, and being strategic. On the basis of this implementation experience, it is concluded that education and training is was a identified [i.e. is identified] as an integral component of a structured implementation strategy

Innovating point of care education: The clinical coach

Clinical educators have an important leadership function within the organisation and play a central role in the staff development of qualified staff and undergraduate students (Adelman-Mullally et al. 2013). Recently within the Sunshine Coast Hospital and Health Service, these leadership functions have expanded. While maintaining staff development responsibilities, clinical educators are also primarily engaged in service development

Situating clinical assessment tools within workplace learning

It is our premise th at the use of clinical assessment tools to support the workplace learning o f experienced nurses and midwives are an essential aspect o f the modern health service

Attracting Generation Z into nursing as a career

In Australia, a shortage of over 109,000 nurses by the year 2025 is anticipated (Health Workforce Australia, 2012). Other health professions are similarly experiencing shortages. According to the World Health Organization there is a global shortage of all types of health workers (World Health Organization, 2015). Nursing and Midwifery are challenged in recruiting young people into the profession and strategies to ensure a sufficient health workforce supply in the future are essential to meet projected workforce demands (Health Workforce Australia, 2012)

Clinical coaches in nursing and midwifery practice: Facilitating point of care workplace learning and development

Contemporary demands for workplace learning and development in real time have guided one health service to create a new role, that of the clinical coach. Clinical coaches provide point of care educational interventions to achieve clinical skill and practice development for nurses and midwives and to stimulate a culture of learning and development within the organisation. Clinical coaches use coaching processes and mantras, facilitation skills, practice development principles, adult learning strategies, supported practice and clinical assessment tools to achieve these goals within a person-centred philosophy. Specific point of care accountabilities of the coaches related to staff development include supporting clinical induction requirements, supporting preceptor and learner practices, supporting evidence-based clinical development, ensuring that mandatory training requirements are met, and coaching for the maintenance of safe and competent practice. The clinical coach role has evolved throughout the health service over a number of years. Organisational data reveal the acceptability of the coaching role in the organisation along with successful outcomes. Based on this case experience, it is recommended that other health services consider clinical coaching as a relevant mechanism for advancing point of care workplace integrated learning and development

Exploring environmental factors in nursing workplaces that promote psychological resilience: Constructing a unified theoretical model

© 2016 Cusack, Smith, Hegney, Rees, Breen, Witt, Rogers, Williams, Cross and Cheung. Building nurses' resilience to complex and stressful practice environments is necessary to keep skilled nurses in the workplace and ensuring safe patient care. A unified theoretical framework titled Health Services Workplace Environmental Resilience Model (HSWERM), is presented to explain the environmental factors in the workplace that promote nurses' resilience. The framework builds on a previously-published theoretical model of individual resilience, which identified the key constructs of psychological resilience as self-efficacy, coping and mindfulness, but did not examine environmental factors in the workplace that promote nurses' resilience. This unified theoretical framework was developed using a literary synthesis drawing on data from international studies and literature reviews on the nursing workforce in hospitals. The most frequent workplace environmental factors were identified, extracted and clustered in alignment with key constructs for psychological resilience. Six major organizational concepts emerged that related to a positive resilience-building workplace and formed the foundation of the theoretical model. Three concepts related to nursing staff support (professional, practice, personal) and three related to nursing staff development (professional, practice, personal) within the workplace environment. The unified theoretical model incorporates these concepts within the workplace context, linking to the nurse, and then impacting on personal resilience and workplace outcomes, and its use has the potential to increase staff retention and quality of patient care

Can we predict burnout among student nurses? An exploration of the ICWR-1 model of individual psychological resilience

© 2016 Rees, Heritage, Osseiran-Moisson, Chamberlain, Cusack, Anderson, Terry, Rogers, Hemsworth, Cross and Hegney. The nature of nursing work is demanding and can be stressful. Previous studies have shown a high rate of burnout among employed nurses. Recently, efforts have been made to understand the role of resilience in determining the psychological adjustment of employed nurses. A theoretical model of resilience was proposed recently that includes several constructs identified in the literature related to resilience and to psychological functioning. As nursing students are the future of the nursing workforce it is important to advance our understanding of the determinants of resilience in this population. Student nurses who had completed their final practicum were invited to participate in an online survey measuring the key constructs of the ICWR-1 model. 422 students from across Australia and Canada completed the survey between July 2014 and July 2015. As well as several key demographics, trait negative affect, mindfulness, self-efficacy, coping, resilience, and burnout were measured. We used structural equation modeling and found support for the major pathways of the model; namely that resilience had a significant influence on the relationship between mindfulness, self-efficacy and coping, and psychological adjustment (burnout scores). Furthermore, as predicted, Neuroticism moderated the relationship between coping and burnout. Results are discussed in terms of potential approaches to supporting nursing students who may be at risk of burnout

A unified call to action from Australian nursing and midwifery leaders: Ensuring that Black lives matter

Nurses and midwives of Australia now is the time for change! As powerfully placed, Indigenous and non-Indigenous nursing and midwifery professionals, together we can ensure an effective and robust Indigenous curriculum in our nursing and midwifery schools of education. Today, Australia finds itself in a shifting tide of social change, where the voices for better and safer health care ring out loud. Voices for justice, equity and equality reverberate across our cities, our streets, homes, and institutions of learning. It is a call for new songlines of reform. The need to embed meaningful Indigenous health curricula is stronger now than it ever was for Australian nursing and midwifery. It is essential that nursing and midwifery leadership continue to build an authentic collaborative environment for Indigenous curriculum development. Bipartisan alliance is imperative for all academic staff to be confident in their teaching and learning experiences with Indigenous health syllabus. This paper is a call out. Now is the time for Indigenous and non-Indigenous nurses and midwives to make a stand together, for justice and equity in our teaching, learning, and practice. Together we will dismantle systems, policy, and practices in health that oppress. The Black Lives Matter movement provides us with a ‘now window’ of accepted dialogue to build a better, culturally safe Australian nursing and midwifery workforce, ensuring that Black Lives Matter in all aspects of health care