Mental Health Nurse Staffing

Ensuring excellent mental health nurse staffing levels on inpatient psychiatric units is vital, given the increasing severity of illness of mental health patients and the mounting evidence that nurse staffing levels influences outcomes. ('APNA Position Statement: Staffing Inpatient Psychiatric Units,' 2012) An investigation took place in Metro North Mental Health-Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital to obtain data to answer the title question.Information was gathered in different ways from service users,carers and mental health nurses through the process of interviews.The interviews took on an informal approach that was centered on two questions:What makes a fantastic mental health nurse? and What can we do better?.In total,twenty interviews

(Gunasekara et al.,

(Voogt et al., 2015)

During one of the observed events,the psychiatric nurse made clear to the patient why help was not imminent.The patient then stated:

"The nurse had to finish something for another patient first, before he was able to help me. That explanation was decent".(Voogt et al., 2015)

Throughout the interviews, the patients also described how to improve in mental health nursing.

Patients said that nurses need to take them more seriously,meaning that they should be permitted to take responsibility for ward routines and processes.One patient felt strengthened by this,he went on to say:

“Because we were made responsible for ward routines and ward rules, I felt useful for others and part of the group”. (Voogt et al., 2015)

Many patients mentioned