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Perceptions from the front line: Professional identity in mental health nursing
Author(s) -
Hercelinskyj Gylo,
Cruickshank Mary,
Brown Peter,
Phillips Brian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international journal of mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.911
H-Index - 54
eISSN - 1447-0349
pISSN - 1445-8330
DOI - 10.1111/inm.12001
Subject(s) - workforce , nursing , front line , mental health , context (archaeology) , medicine , identity (music) , perception , psychology , psychiatry , political science , paleontology , physics , neuroscience , acoustics , law , biology
In the context of a growing population of people experiencing mental illness worldwide, mental health nurses are a crucial workforce. Their recruitment and retention, however, is in decline. Drawing on qualitative data obtained from interviews with mental health nurses ( MHN ) in V ictoria, Australia, the paper employs a range of concepts from role theory to explore professional identity within mental health nursing. The data highlight three key issues in relation to the future recruitment and retention of MHN : (i) the ambiguity of the MHN role; (ii) the weak definition and lack of understanding of the scope of the MHN role by nursing students; and (iii) a lack of communication about MHN as a profession to a wider audience. These findings indicate three avenues through which recruitment and retention in mental health nursing could be improved: (i) public communication; (ii) training and educating of the next generation of MHN ; and (iii) more accurately defining the role of the MHN.