The Role of Advocacy Among Mental Health Nurses in a Psychiatric Hospital in Wales PDF Download

Author: Ootra Jugessur
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mental illness
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The main aim of this study was to explore qualified mental health nurses' understanding and experience of the role of advocacy, their need for preparation and training its provision based upon their descriptions of their lived advocacy experiences.The historical and changing policy contexts of mental health nursing are discussed and the general literature on advocacy was researched with particular reference to an attempt to develop an understanding of the role of advocacy in mental health nursing. Semi structured interviews (phenomenologically inclined) were conducted with a stratified sample of mental health nurses qualified for one year or more.Mental health nurses' perceptions of advocacy roles in practice settings were partly positive. The main negative perceptions of many of them were that they were not adequately prepared. They believed that managers did not view preparation for advocacy roles as a priority. Some managers fostered control and defensiveness, rather than collaboration, when nurses approached them in pursuit of the best interests of their patients. Mangers sometimes saw nurses as trouble makers when they took up advocacy roles and moved them to other wards. Teamwork between hospital manages and the ward staff was not readily apparent in developing strategies for advocacy roles.Mental health nurses progress from novice to experienced patient advocates through exposure to experiences and 'learn on the job' or 'learn by trial and error' strategies. They highly valued the practice of advocacy as a learning resource. They learned to live with their differing perspectives of advocacy without obvious difficulty. The stress that they experienced was related to changes sweeping through the NHS, lack of collaboration with managers and conflict with their medical and multidisciplinary team colleagues. They felt that they were ill prepared and ill informed about the advocacy role. There were no policy or guidelines on the role of advocacy except a statement from the UKCC, stating that nurses must act as patient advocate as part of their role.The literature abounds with theoretical articles on advocacy but none that particularly informed nurses how to advocate effectively. Our mental health nurses experienced variations in practice concerning both what advocacy should be and what they should be advocating for on their patient's behalf. The needs that they expressed, concerning education and training related strongly to their specialities though the majority felt that they needed both general and specialist education and training in order to undertaken their roles effectively. The majority also felt that training could be provided by both experienced staff and outside agencies. Some nurses did not practice advocacy on behalf of their patients, preferring to go along with the medical and MDT opinions and decisions, instead of voicing their patients' views.A number of recommendations based on the findings are made including a consideration of the nurses position and strategies to improve their status from the still somewhat ubiquitous 'handmaiden role' to that of independent practitioners.