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Aims This paper presents findings from a hermeneutical study which sought to explore how registered nurses experienced and perceived their professional accountability in clinical settings. Background Professional accountability encompasses the ideals and standards of nursing practice. Nurses are accountable for their actions under civil, criminal and contract law to their; employing organisation, their regulatory body and the patients for whom they care. Design and methods This paper reports on a Heideggerian hermeneutical study involving seven registered nurses, working in clinical practice in the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. The study adopted purposive sampling, collecting data by means of in‐depth interviews. Data was analysed using the hermeneutic circle. COREQ checklist was used as a reporting guideline for this study. Results The findings suggest that professional accountability in nursing practice is a complex phenomenon, which can be compromised by many factors which are historically, socially or politically driven. Participants experienced challenges through a lack of resources and poor managerial support, which comprised their ability to deliver high quality patient care. However, collegiality strongly impacted upon resilience and positively influenced their wellbeing. Relevance to clinical practice Amid the challenges of the clinical workplace, a positive workplace culture with visible managerial support is a fundamental requirement in supporting professional accountability, development and retention of nurses. Findings highlight the view that leadership should be seen as a collective responsibility, which empowers staff to positively change the practice environment.

Volunteering to address poor life outcomes often experienced by care leavers is emphasised in UK policy. Although volunteering is credited with the ability to generate social capital, there is limited research on the impact of volunteering on the social capital of care leavers. This article re-examines data from an evaluation of a volunteering project for care leavers. It explores in what ways young people’s participation in the project constitutes social capital. The findings support the importance of regular face-to-face contact and co-production for young people to become creators of their own social capital.

The World Health Organization’s Mental Health Action Plan 2013–2020 identifies actions for all member states to alleviate the global burden of mental ill health, including an obligation for mental healthcare to be delivered in a ‘culturally appropriate’ manner. In this article we argue that such a requirement is problematic, not least because such pronouncements remain framed by the normative prepositions of Western medical and psychological practice and their associated ethical, legal and institutional standpoints. As such, when striving to export Western mental health expertise, different paradigms for evidence will be necessary to deliver locally meaningful interventions to low and middle income countries. Our discussion highlights a number of philosophical concerns regarding methodologies for future research practice, including those relating to representation and exclusion in the guise of epistemic injury, presumptive methodologies arising from Western notions of selfhood, and related ethical issues.