Abstract
This presentation aims to discuss the consumers’ perspectives of comprehensively prepared graduate nurses and their nursing care in acute mental health settings. With the comprehensive nursing program as the gateway for registration to become a nurse in Australia, many nurses are working in acute mental health settings without more specialised mental health knowledge and skills. While there is a myriad of nursing literature highlighting experienced mental health nurses’ perspectives of having comprehensively prepared graduate nurses working in acute mental health settings, the perspectives of consumers are lacking.
The objective of this presentation is to report on the findings of a completed exploratory qualitative study with consumers to explore their experiences of being cared for by comprehensively prepared graduate nurses. Purposeful sampling recruited 12 consumers who were admitted to the inpatient mental health units in Western Australia. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and data saturation was achieved. Braun and Clarke's method of thematic analysis was used to analyse the collected data and three themes emerged. The emerged themes were: You got what it takes to be a mental health nurse; slow down and spend quality time with us; and read in between the lines when we share our negative lived experiences.
The findings highlighted that there was no significant difference between the level of quality of care provided by experienced mental health nurses and comprehensively prepared graduate nurses to support their clinical and personal recovery. Areas highlighted by the consumers that comprehensively prepared graduate nurses may need to develop include confidence, professional identity, micro-communication skills, and the ability to travel alongside consumers with negative lived experiences.