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Accessible summary: What is known on the subject?: Mental health nurses are affected by interpersonal, practice‐related and organizational factors that can increase workplace stress and reduce their physical and mental health and well‐being. Resilience programmes are a strength‐based preventative approach to supporting individuals to overcome workplace adversities. What the paper adds to existing knowledge?: This qualitative inquiry is the first study to report mental health nurses' perspectives and experiences on a workplace resilience programme. Strengthening mental health nurses' resilience through a resilience programme involved a process of understanding resilience, and applying resilience strategies such as positive self‐talk, managing negative self‐talk, detaching from stressful situations, being aware of and managing emotions, and showing more empathy, to address workplace challenges. To address the range of resources needed to support mental health nurses' resilience, a social–ecological approach to workplace resilience can be used to promote resource provision at individual, work unit, organizational and professional levels. What are the implications for practice?: Resilience programmes are one resource for addressing the impacts of workplace stressors on mental health nurses. Organizational barriers and risks to staff well‐being need to also be addressed to build a resilient workforce. Incorporating resilience strategies into clinical supervision or reflective practice models may help sustain beneficial outcomes following a resilience programme and support resilient practice. Abstract: Introduction: Mental health settings are potentially high‐stress workplaces that can lead to nurses' poorer health and well‐being. Resilience programmes are a strengths‐based preventative approach for promoting mental health and well‐being in the face of adversity; however, there is no prior research on mental health nurses' perspectives on resilience programmes. Aim: To explore the perspectives of mental health nurses participating in a mental health service‐initiated resilience programme (Promoting Adult Resilience). Method: An exploratory qualitative inquiry was undertaken. Multiple qualitative data: open‐ended responses and semi‐structured interviews and focus groups, were thematically analysed. Results: Twenty‐nine registered nurses from a metropolitan mental health service participated. Four main themes were as follows: being confronted by adversity; reinforcing understandings of resilience; strengthening resilience; and applying resilience skills at work. Discussion: This is the first study to report mental health nurses' perspectives on a resilience programme. Resilience programmes can help improve nurses' self‐efficacy and ability to realistically appraise stressful situations and to moderate their emotional responses to others. Implications for practice: It is recommended resilience programmes are provided to promote nurses' well‐being and resilient practices. To build a resilient workforce, the wider barriers and risks to staff well‐being need to be addressed at a unit, organizational and professional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary This paper reports on a study that was conducted in an acute psychiatric unit investigating how and what information is communicated at nursing handovers that relates to a patients risk status., Nursing handovers are conducted in an ad hoc manner and may not effectively communicate information required for management of patient risks., A consistent and evidenced-based approach to mental health nursing handovers is required, in order to promote best nursing practice., Abstract Mental health inpatient units are dynamic, complex environments that provide care for patients with heterogeneous ages, diagnoses and levels of acuity. These environments commonly expose clinicians and patients to many potential risks. Despite extensive research into risk assessment, prediction and management, no study has investigated how risk information is communicated at handover in acute mental health settings. Given the pivotal role handover plays in informing risk management, this evidence gap is significant. This paper reports on a study that investigated the practices of communicating risk at handover in an Australian acute mental health inpatient unit. The aim of this research was to identify the frequency and type of risk information communicated between nursing shifts, and the methods by which this communication was performed. A secondary aim was to identify effective and ineffective risk communication practices. This study involved an observational design method using a 14-item Clinical Audit Tool derived from handover principles outlined by World Health Organization. Five hundred occasions of patient handover were observed. Few risk information items were observed to be communicated in any method. Risk communication practice was inconsistent, and a key recommendation from the study is the use of standardized handover tools that ensures risk information is adequately reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accessible summary Clinical leadership is important for the strength of mental health nursing as a profession, particularly in utilizing clinical-based opportunities for the professional development of new graduates and nursing students., To date, there has been limited research examining the attributes of nurses considered by their colleagues to be clinical leaders. This study presents the views and experiences of mental health nurses who deliver care, about what they identify as important for effective clinical leadership., Clinical teaching and role modelling are two fundamental roles of effective clinical leaders; they are underpinned by the attributes of professionalism, honesty, willingness to share knowledge and approachability., Additional research is needed to consider the applicability of these roles and attributes across larger samples of nurses in mental health settings., Abstract Clinical leadership is acknowledged as important to the nursing profession. While studies continue to identify its significance in contributing to positive outcomes for consumers, the role that clinical leadership has in enabling and supporting professional development in mental health nursing is poorly understood. This study utilized a grounded theory methodology to explore the characteristics clinicians consider important for clinical leadership and its significance for mental health nursing in day-to-day clinical practice. Individual face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nurses working in mental health settings. Participants described the important role that clinical leaders play in enabling professional development of others through role modelling and clinical teaching. They describe how nurses, whom they perceive as clinical leaders, use role modelling and clinical teaching to influence the professional development of nursing staff and undergraduate nursing students. Attributes such as professionalism and honesty were seen, by participants, as enablers for clinical leaders in effectively and positively supporting the professional development of junior staff and undergraduate nurses in mental health nursing. This paper examines clinical leadership from the perspective of mental health nurses delivering care, and highlights the important role of clinical leaders in supporting professional development in mental health nursing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Restraint and seclusion are often ineffective and can affect patients adversely. In this study, we explored nurses' experiences of restraint and seclusion in short-stay acute old age psychiatry inpatient units and how these experiences underpin resistance to eliminating these practices. Qualitative interviews were conducted with nurses in three old age psychiatry units in Melbourne, Australia. The results provide one overarching theme, lack of accessible alternatives to restraint and seclusion, indicating that nurses believe there are no effective, accessible alternatives to these practices. Three related themes contribute to this perception. First, an adverse interpersonal environment contributes to restraint and seclusion, which relates to undesirable consequences of poor staff-to-patient relationships. Second, an unfavourable physical environment contributes to aggression and restraint and seclusion use. Third, the practice environment influences the adoption of restraint and seclusion. The findings contribute to the limited evidence about nurses' experiences of these practices in short-stay old age psychiatry, and how account needs to be taken of these experiences and contextual influences when introducing measures to address these practices. Policies addressing these measures need to be accompanied by wide-ranging initiatives to deal with aggression, including providing appropriate education and support and addressing ethical and workplace cultural issues surrounding these practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]