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Aim: To evaluate whether a two‐part culture improvement programme aimed at nurses in clinical and managerial positions in an inpatient mental health service was associated with culture change, and safety‐related behaviour and knowledge improvements. Background: Due to serious failings in the delivery of physiological care to mentally disordered inpatients, it was deemed important that interventions be applied to improve service culture. Methods: A pre‐test and post‐test study was conducted to evaluate change associated with a mandated intervention aimed at culture change. Nurses in clinical and managerial positions at all levels attended relevant sessions. All were invited to participate in evaluation measures. Results: N = 241 nurses participated in the evaluation (n = 137 and n = 104, pre‐test and post‐test, respectively). There was a small but significant change in organisational culture indicating greater adhocracy and less clan culture in the second survey period and a small decline in reported safety behaviour. Measures of safety culture, knowledge and emergency‐related educational satisfaction were unchanged. Conclusion: Only a small change in measured culture was associated with the programme. Implications for Nursing Management: Attempts to evaluate culture change need to align anticipated outcomes with appropriate outcome measures. A mandated programme of culture change had little tangible effect on the outcomes measured.

Introduction Quantification of the social climate of mental health care environments has received considerable attention. Investigations of the resulting measures indicate that social climate is associated with individual outcomes including patient satisfaction and staff burnout. Interest has grown in developing interventions to improve social climate in anticipation of subsequent related benefits. This study aimed to identify and critically review research about the effectiveness of interventions for improving social climate in inpatient adult acute mental health settings. Methods Systematic review reported in line with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses. Comprehensive terms were used to search multiple electronic databases from inception to July 2019. Information about intervention type(s), complexity was extracted and study quality was assessed. Results Twenty-three papers met inclusion criteria of which 20 used a pretest–posttest study design and three employed randomized and/or controlled designs. Interventions were environmental/structural, operational/process-oriented and developmental/person-oriented in nature and they ranged in complexity. The Ward Atmosphere Scale was the most common outcome measure used. Following quality assessment, six studies were judged to be sufficiently robust in terms of quality, theory-base, user-inclusion, and outcomes evaluation to contribute credibly to the evidence base. Of these, four complex person- and process-oriented intervention studies and two less complex structural/environmental intervention studies resulted in positive outcomes. Conclusion There is limited strong evidence that interventions positively influence measures of ward social climate in acute adult mental health settings. Such measures should not be the sole criterion of success when evaluating change. Decisions about implementing change to improve social climate should be informed by meaningful proxy measures including the views and preferences of service users and other stakeholders. Studies using stronger designs are required to establish the ability of interventions to improve social climate.

Mental health nurses have traditionally lagged in terms of physical healthcare skills and have been found to have poorer cultural safety-related attitudes relative to other nurses. Organizational culture, including safety-related culture, is associated with important aspects of care quality. The aim of the current study was to examine the relationships between safety-related attitudes, physical healthcare-related knowledge and organizational culture among mental health nurses. By doing so, the intention was to inform decisions about interventions to improve attitudes and care related to severe physiological deterioration among mental health nurses. The study design was cross-sectional and correlational. The safety-related attitudes of N = 133 nurses from the inpatient mental health services of one Local Health District in New South Wales, Australia, were examined in terms of a range of potential predictor variables of safety attitudes (Safety Attitudes Questionnaire) including individual organizational-perceiver type (Organisational Climate Assessment Inventory), knowledge of emergency medical healthcare (Lambeth In situ Training Questionnaire), use and perception of medical emergency teams (purpose-designed questionnaire) and a range of demographic variables. Regression analyses revealed that those who perceived the organization to have a primarily market-oriented culture had poorer safety-related attitudes than those who perceived a more clan-type culture. Number of years qualified was negatively associated with safety attitudes. To our knowledge, this is the first study in mental health which demonstrates a link between organizational culture-perception and safety attitudes related to physical healthcare. Results suggest that, among nurses, individuals have quite different perceptions of the organizational culture. In turn, this suggests that the 'one-size fits all' approach to changing organizational culture may be inappropriate.

Aims and objective To capture the experiences of nurses in relation to the acutely physiologically deteriorating consumer. Background Improving the physical health care of consumers with mental illness has been widely adopted as a priority for mental health nursing. Much of the effort thus far has focused on routine screening, prevention and treatment of common comorbidities including cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus and cancer. There has been less focus on the acutely physiologically deteriorating consumer in the mental health setting. Further study is warranted since this issue poses a set of highly complex challenges for nurses within the inpatient setting. Method An exploratory, descriptive study was employed using focus groups to gather narrative data, which was then subject to qualitative analysis. Eleven mental health inpatient wards within a local health district in Sydney, Australia, were studied, comprising ward-based nurses (n = 64) and nurse unit managers (n = 8). This paper follows the COREQ guidelines for reporting qualitative health research. Results Qualitative data analysis revealed three themes central to the nurses' experience: (a) lack of clarity (subthemes: procedures and leadership accountability); (b) confidence in the workforce (subthemes: knowledge and skills, training needs, relevant experience, collaboration with emergency and medical teams, stigmatising attitudes); and (c) complexity (subthemes: complexity as the new norm and suitability of the mental health environment). Conclusion The themes found in this study can be used to guide and inform healthcare policy, protocols, education and processes around building a more confident nurse workforce for the acutely physiologically deteriorating consumer. Relevance to clinical practice Findings provide a rich data set for the generation of measurement tools and protocols to guide physical health care and evaluate performance.