Psychiatric nursing liaison in a combat zone: an autoethnography.

Accessible summary Military mental health nurses deploy to combat zones where they are expected to liaise with the management structure of the British forces in order to help service personnel to remain in their fighting roles., During a recent deployment, I kept a journal of my experiences of liaising with the Chain of Command. Upon return to the UK, I then reviewed this journal line by line until I generated three key themes about my experience of psychiatric nursing liaison. These were 'being me', 'being a nurse' and 'relating to the Chain of Command'., When visiting combat units, I adopted a 'least intrusive' approach to psychiatric nursing liaison. I achieved this by targeting key players within the organization, specifically, the Officer in Command, the Sergeant Major, the Trauma Risk Management co-ordinator (usually the Sergeant Major) and the medic. It worked for me because it suited my personality and my sense of being authentic or credible within my nursing role., Other nurses may have different experiences of psychiatric nursing liaison in a combat zone. A grounded theory study aimed at bringing together these different experiences might offer greater insight. In the mean time, if elements of my experience resonate with other nurses it may serve to inform their practice., Abstract Military mental health nurses are tasked with providing psychiatric liaison to British forces deployed to combat zones. This forms part of a wider effort to maintain the combat effectiveness of the fighting force. During a recent deployment, I maintained a reflexive journal of my experience of liaising with the British Chain of Command. I then used line by line coding via the NVIVO 9 software package to formulate the core themes that became a framework for this autoethnography. My personality and social anxieties shaped how I performed the psychiatric liaison role. I was able to develop a template for liaison that accounted for both 'me' and my need to feel authentic or credible as a nurse, yet still enabled me to communicate effectively with the Chain of Command. One template for psychiatric nursing liaison with British combat forces is to focus upon key stakeholders within the Chain of Command, specifically, the Officer Commanding, the Sergeant Major, the Trauma Risk Management co-ordinator (usually the Sergeant Major) and the embedded medical asset. Further research is needed to establish how other nurses approach psychiatric nursing liaison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]