搜索结果：Issues in mental health nursing

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded in the U.S., individuals with mental health disorders faced compounded challenges exacerbated by existing inequities, including racial and economic injustice. This study examined the association between having a history of a prior mental health condition and psychological distress related to COVID-19 among predominantly Black and Latino public housing residents, identifying both risk and protective factors. We used longitudinal data comprising eight time points from participants (N = 392) in a sample of 146 households of public housing residents in South Bronx, NYC. We conducted a mixed-effects multilevel logistic regression model for cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis to evaluate the association between recent psychological distress related to COVID-19 and self-reported mental health diagnosis, adjusting for sociodemographic, risk, and protective factors. Participants with prior mental health conditions (31% of the sample) faced higher likelihood of distress related to COVID-19 (AOR = 3.54, 95% CI: 1.62-7.73) and over time (AOR = 4.88, 95% CI: 2.25-10.59). Resilience was a protective factor against distress for individuals with prior mental health conditions, while middle adulthood (age 36-55) emerged as a risk factor for distress. All self-reported measures pose a potential risk of information bias. Our study highlights the significant impact of prior mental health conditions on COVID-19-related distress among public housing residents, emphasizing resilience as a protective factor. A targeted approach is critical, including screening for past mental health issues and promoting equity-centered programs tailored to the needs of Black and Latino individuals with pre-existing mental health conditions.

Bullying, harassment, and other negative workplace behaviours are unfortunately all too common in nursing. In this discursive paper, we illuminate the darker side of nursing by summarising prominent negative behaviours in nursing academia, exploring their causes, and considering the weaponisation of complaints as a covert form of bullying. Informed by published peer-reviewed literature on bullying in nursing, bullying in academia, organisational justice, workplace fairness, complaints processes, and weaponisation, as well as specific negative workplace behaviours, we report on how nursing academia shapes professional culture and patient care, yet negative workplace behaviours persist. Weaponised complaints perpetuate bullying in nursing academia, harming academics' wellbeing and reputations while undermining universities' credibility. Such practices damage organisational culture and risk graduating nurses into environments where harm is normalised, ultimately undermining the profession's commitment to safe practice. Addressing weaponised complaints is important to protect nurse wellbeing, foster collegiality and ensure nursing students inherit cultures grounded in procedural fairness, integrity and safe practice. Recognising and preventing misuse is important to safeguarding wellbeing, integrity and collegiality in nursing academia and beyond.

Children with unmet mental health needs from regional and rural settings experience compromised service access. A lack of skilled workforce is a key driver of this problem. This Australian-based two-phase mental health nurse led study aimed to co-design, develop and then trial the helpfulness of a six-week capability development training called the Lighthouse Project for supporters of rural children experiencing mental health challenges. Phase One of the study involved a co-design focus group of stakeholders (N = 20) with Phase Two being qualitative survey responses from supporter participants. Phase One group data confirmed lived experiences of restricted service access to mental health services. Core content and enabling mechanisms for the training to help mitigate that challenge were subsequently developed. Phase Two data (N = 79) reported four themes: (1) New knowledge and attitudes, (2) Practical application of learning, (3) Positive participant subjective experiences, and (4) Mechanisms supporting or hindering outcomes. Co-designed online capability training enables effective role shifting of introductory yet specialised child mental health interventions to rural parents, carers and other supporters. Mental health nurses can undertake key roles in delivering primary mental health interventions such as the Lighthouse project in the context of diminishing practice roles outside of tertiary mental health settings. This study was conducted under a small rural mental health grant from the Peregrine Centre.

The research on schizophrenia and stigma within the nursing discipline is experiencing a notable increase. This trend underscores the escalating significance of addressing schizophrenia and stigma within the nursing profession. This study aimed to examine the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of publications on schizophrenia and stigma in the field of nursing from a bibliometric perspective. The data of this bibliometric analysis. The data were retrieved using the keyword combination "schizophrenia" and "stigma," encompassing studies published up to July 2025, the date of the study, without imposing any temporal restrictions. In this study, 290 schizophrenia and stigma research articles/reviews conducted in the field of nursing between 1997 and 2025 were identified, and 274 articles were included in accordance with the exclusion criteria. The analysis revealed that there were 874 authors, 243 research articles, and 31 reviews/systematic review articles, with an average of 18.4 citations per publication. The findings indicate that, despite advancements in comprehending and addressing stigma associated with schizophrenia within the nursing profession, there remains a significant need for continued research, policy formulation, and practical interventions. It is advisable for nursing specialists to engage in further research on schizophrenia and the mechanisms of stigmatization. The findings indicate that, despite advancements in comprehending and addressing stigma associated with schizophrenia within the nursing profession, there remains a significant need for continued research, policy formulation, and practical interventions. These efforts are essential to ensure the safety and well-being of both nurses and patients in mental health care environments.

Suicide prevention represents a critical opportunity for nursing practice, policy, and research to advance a more cohesive and proactive model of care. Many individuals who attempt or die by suicide have had recent contact with healthcare services but were not adequately assessed for suicide risk, underscoring the importance of early identification through brief, validated screening tools such as the ASQ and C-SSRS. Implementing universal screening promotes consistent assessment across clinical settings, reducing missed opportunities for intervention in emergency, inpatient, and outpatient care. However, national data reveal substantial variability in screening practices, driven by workflow constraints, limited training, and unclear policy guidance, highlighting the need for greater standardization. As the largest and most patient-facing segment of the healthcare workforce, nurses are uniquely positioned to lead suicide prevention efforts. Through strong nursing leadership, screening protocols can be integrated into routine care, documentation processes streamlined, and clear pathways for escalation and follow-up established. Standardized approaches support both clinicians and patients by supporting shared responsibility for suicide care across healthcare systems while honouring patient autonomy, lived experience, and the complex role that suicidal thoughts may play in coping with psychological pain. Aligning policy, practice, and research is essential to advancing a cohesive, preventative framework that strengthens patient safety and ensures individuals at risk are identified and supported before reaching crisis points.

The concept of help-seeking has been widely used across health disciplines to describe individuals' efforts to access care, yet its meaning remains inconsistent, particularly in the context of domestic violence. Survivors of intimate partner violence often experience multiple barriers in seeking help, with research showing that, on average, seven attempts are made before leaving an abusive relationship. Clarifying the help-seeking journey is therefore critical to understanding survivors' vulnerability and informing supportive nursing practice. This concept analysis applied Walker and Avant method, drawing on an extensive review of the literature, to identify the defining attributes, antecedents, consequences, and empirical referents of the help-seeking journey. Findings indicate that the help-seeking journey is a dynamic and continuous process in which individuals recognize a problem, define it as requiring outside assistance, and engage in interpersonal interaction with selected sources of care, including health professionals, to enhance safety and mental well-being. By offering an operational definition of the help-seeking journey, this analysis provides a foundation for theory development, research, and practice. The clarified concept can guide psychiatric and mental health nurses in recognizing barriers, facilitating trauma-informed interventions, and shaping policies that promote timely and effective help-seeking among survivors of domestic violence.

This study examined how sibling dyads in families with a parent diagnosed with bipolar disorder navigate shared adversity and develop interconnected lived experience orientations toward parental mental illness. A qualitative secondary analysis of narrative inquiry data was conducted using semi-structured interviews with four sibling dyads (seven females and one male, aged 20-32). Guided by narrative inquiry principles and the SHARE framework, the analysis examined seven dimensions: life focus, emotions toward family, coping with parental mental illness, supporting family, perceived gains and losses, perceptions of siblings, and perceptions of sibling relationships. Two interrelated orientations were identified. Family-oriented experiences involved emotional closeness, caregiving engagement, and active illness management, whereas individual-oriented experiences emphasized autonomy, self-protection, and career development, often expressed through financial or practical support. Across families, siblings assumed complementary roles and dynamically negotiated closeness and distance to sustain family balance and personal adaptation, reflecting an interplay between emotional connection and independence. These findings underscore the importance of assessing sibling dynamics in psychiatric settings, particularly how differentiated orientations shape caregiving roles, emotional regulation, and relational boundaries among adult children of parents with bipolar disorder. They further suggest that family-centered psychoeducation should address sibling-specific roles to support adaptive communication and role negotiation. For mental health nurses, integrating sibling- and family-oriented perspectives into assessment and care planning may facilitate more relationally attuned, developmentally sensitive support. By foregrounding sibling dyads as an underexamined unit of analysis, this study advances nursing practice and identifies directions for future sibling-focused research across diverse family and cultural contexts.

This study explores undergraduate nursing students' perception of mental health nursing as a potential career path. Utilising a qualitative phenomenographic approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with nineteen nursing students enrolled in a comprehensive Bachelor of Nursing program from one metropolitan university located in Melbourne, Australia. Data analysis revealed five distinct categories of description, ranging from unclear role definition and polarised attitudes to a more nuanced understanding of the skills involved. These findings are significant as it illustrates that variations in students' understandings of the mental health nursing role persist even following targeted education, suggesting that deeply held perceptions are not easily shifted within existing curricular approaches.

A self-reported psychological distress and mental health diagnoses as well as use of psychotropic medication is rising among children and adolescents globally. Mental health aspects such as self-esteem, self-confidence, physical activity, and social interaction are crucial for children's and adolescents' well-being and school performance. Parents of children with mental illness often experience heavy care burden, social stigma, and financial strain affecting their physical, psychological, and social health. The study uses reflexive thematic analysis to describe nine parents' experiences of their mentally distressed children's participation in a 12-week equine-assisted therapeutic intervention conducted in accordance with Engels biopsychosocial model in southern Sweden. The results revealed the overarching theme "From deepest despair to a ray of hope," comprising three themes: "Experiencing crisis without getting any help," "An oasis of ease without stress," and "New spark of life and faith in the future." In conclusion, parents emphasized the importance of relaxation and confidence in their own and their children's abilities, gained through participation in the equine-assisted intervention (EAI). Integrating EAI into regular mental healthcare for children could strengthen mental health and resilience among the young and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as childhood mental well-being is fundamental to health and life expectancy.

Stress and burnout are significant concerns in nursing academia, as students balance clinical and academic demands, faculty manage teaching and research responsibilities, and staff navigate heavy workloads. Traditional wellness initiatives often address these groups separately, overlooking the value of shared engagement across the life course. This case study examined the development, implementation, and outcomes of an evidence-based wellness program within a College of Nursing. The life course framework reflected the continuum of human development, spanning students entering nursing directly from high school, registered nurses returning to advance their education, staff balancing work and family responsibilities, and faculty navigating the demands of early- to late-career stages. Guided by Yin's embedded case study methodology, data sources included pre-surveys, post-program feedback, and written interview guides from one student, one faculty member, and one staff member. Analysis combined within- and cross-case synthesis to identify similarities and differences across roles. Participants reported reduced stress, stronger wellness practices, improved coping, and greater feelings of belonging, with role-specific areas: students focused on coping and consistency, faculty on role modeling, and staff on recognition and sense of belonging. The intergenerational space was experienced as supportive and nonhierarchical, with participants sustaining at least one wellness practice beyond the program. These findings suggest that nursing academia can function as a whole multigenerational community for holistic wellness, normalizing wellness practices, fostering reciprocal learning, and cultivating an environment that strengthens well-being across the life course.

Peer support is a recovery-oriented collaborative practice where individuals with lived experiences with mental health conditions engage in supporting others experiencing similar challenges. Becoming a peer support worker (PSW) includes a transition from being a service user to becoming a provider of care and personal roles and identity are challenged when adjusting to the new role. Through individual interviews, this study explored eight PSWs' personal stories of mental illness, recovery, and when the possibility of becoming a peer support worker emerged during this process. Thematic analysis led to four themes: 1) Struggles in everyday life, 2) Landmark events, 3) Turning points, and 4) Finding your way. The PSWs told deeply personal stories of how mental illness had impacted their lives. The themes display when the initial idea and then the ambition to become a PSW emerged during the process of recovery. This study provides insight into how the PSWs at different times-and in different ways-became aware of the possibility of using their personal experience to support others. At an overall level, these findings represent descriptions of individual processes in which the PSWs moved towards re-positioning their lived experiences with mental health challenges from deficit to asset.

Prevention of relapses in the care of patients with severe mental illness poses a significant challenge including difficulties with treatment adherence. A more frequent contact between patients and mental health professionals has the potential to positively affect patient stability. The aim of this feasibility study was to explore the perspectives and experiences of patients and mental health professionals on the combination of video consultations and relapse prevention using the early recognition method strategy. Eight patients with severe mental illness and six mental health professionals from two Community Mental Health Care centres in the Region of Southern Denmark were interviewed using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions. The interviews were analysed using an inductive approach to content analysis as described by Elo and Kyngäs. The analysis resulted in three themes from the patient interviews: (1) A facilitated and expanded contact is not just a talk; (2) Personal perspectives on the optimal room for therapy and communication; (3) Focus on prevention empowers action, and two themes from interviews with Mental Health Professionals (1) An expanded treatment approach; and (2) A more nuanced view of perspective on using VC. The paper concludes that combining video consultations with the Early Recognition Method adds flexibility to treatment and meeting the patients need, although its use may present challenges, such as scepticism among the MHPs, the level of familiarity with using VC among the patients, and technical challenges. Given increasing patient loads, this combination is a suitable addition to treatment.

Young adults are prone to loneliness and its adverse effects due to the difficulty of transitioning to adulthood. In this context, social networking sites are a crucial platform at their disposal to find connections. However, loneliness in social networking sites lacks conceptual clarity. By using Rodgers's Evolutionary Model, this study was conducted using a systematic search of the literature to help mental health nurses understand the concept of loneliness in social networking sites for young adults. The analysis revealed three categories of attributes: Engagement-based; Consumption-based; and Emotion-based, and two groups of antecedents: Emotion-linked and Skill-linked, with multiple consequences of loneliness. The findings highlight the role of social networking sites as an emerging platform for the multifaceted manifestations of loneliness among the young generation. As mental healthcare professionals increasingly recognise the significance of social networking sites in the lives of young adults, this conceptual understanding will help in the development of interventions and policies based on interaction dynamics. By understanding these patterns, healthcare providers can better support young adults grappling with feelings of loneliness in social networking sites, ultimately promoting enhanced mental health and social connection in a digital world.

This integrative review critically examined current evidence on cyberbullying, cyberincivility, and online harassment involving nurses as recipients, perpetrators, or participants in professional and public digital spaces. Guided by Whittemore and Knafl's framework and reported in accordance with PRISMA 2020, peer-reviewed studies (2017-2025) were identified through CINAHL, MEDLINE, and Embase (final search: 3 December 2025). Methodological quality was appraised using Joanna Briggs Institute tools, and findings were synthesised through inductive thematic analysis. Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Five themes emerged: cyberbullying is widespread and multimodal; shaped by organisational culture and power dynamics; associated with significant psychological and occupational harm; intensified by blurred personal-professional boundaries; and inadequately addressed due to fragmented leadership, education, and policy responses. Cyberbullying and cyberincivility represent pervasive digital extensions of workplace bullying in nursing, with serious implications for nurse wellbeing, professional identity, workforce retention, and patient care. Addressing these behaviours requires recognition of cyber-aggression as workplace violence and coordinated organisational action across leadership, education, policy, and research. Healthcare organisations must move beyond individualised coping approaches and implement proactive and enforceable policies, leadership development, and structural psychosocial supports to prevent and respond to cyberbullying, thereby safeguarding nurses’ mental health, professional identity, and patient care.

Nurses spend up to 40% of their time safely administering medication. Medication administration errors (MAEs) are a concern as they can compromise patient safety and increase the risk of morbidity and mortality. Although some research has investigated factors that influence MAEs, there has been limited attention paid to the impact and unique experiences of mental health nurses directly involved in such errors. The scoping review intended to explore literature on the experiences of mental health nurses regarding MAEs within the hospital setting. A database search found 540 citations, with one extra study identified through reference lists; no new papers were found in the grey literature. Three papers included: an editorial and two qualitative studies. Using MMAT for quality appraisal, the review showed that mental health nurses' experiences of MAEs were shaped by workload, staffing, ward dynamics, patient involvement, and communication. Nurses reported emotional responses such as fear, anxiety, stress, relief, and guilt. Mental health nurses administer medication, yet the effects of MAEs are largely overlooked, with only three studies covering this area. This review highlights the importance of understanding factors and emotions related to MAEs. While nurses shared experiences, the studies did not explain how they interpreted these errors.

Sabotage in nursing is often unacknowledged, yet many nurses have encountered it in both subtle and overt forms. It can manifest in routine interactions and may involve withholding information, social exclusion, interference with clinical or academic work, or the gradual undermining of a colleague's credibility. These behaviors are intentional and can have lasting effects on those targeted. This discussion paper explores the ways sabotage appears in both clinical and academic settings. It examines the workplace pressures, insecurities, and cultural patterns that allow it to persist. Factors such as competition, professional jealousy, power imbalances, and limited recognition can shape behavior and distort the teamwork and respect that nursing relies on. The impact on nurses and patients is significant, leading to compromised psychosocial safety and negative patient care outcomes. These issues are compounded when leaders respond with silence, avoidance, or by protecting the perpetrators. The paper argues that addressing sabotage requires recognizing its presence, openly discussing its impacts, and enacting leadership that upholds accountability and fairness. Creating positive, healthier workplace cultures depends on everyday actions that demonstrate respect, honesty, and genuine support for colleagues. By naming sabotage and understanding how it develops, nurses can begin to rebuild trust and strengthen the foundations of care essential to the profession.

Workplace bullying in nursing is commonly defined through overt hostility, yet less visible forms of regulation often operate through the language of care itself. This paper examines how discourses of concern, kindness, and professionalism can function as mechanisms of moral regulation within professional nursing. Drawing on feminist critical theory, we introduce the concept of weaponised concern to describe how ostensibly benevolent expressions of worry about a colleague's well-being or coping may redirect attention away from substantive critique and towards the presumed psychological state of the speaker. In doing so, dissent is reframed as instability, and professional disagreement becomes pathologised rather than engaged. Situated within gendered expectations of emotional regulation and relational harmony in a predominantly female profession, these practices contribute to collective silencing, reputational harm, and the erosion of professional voice. Digital professional spaces further intensify these dynamics by amplifying and preserving insinuations framed as care. We argue that confronting workplace harm in nursing requires a critical examination of how moral virtues can be mobilised as instruments of control, shaping whose knowledge is legitimised and whose speech is disciplined within the profession.

Food insecurity is a critical social determinant of health among individuals with schizophrenia-spectrum psychotic disorders (SSPDs). While existing research emphasizes prevalence and clinical outcomes, less is known about how clients and case managers navigate chronic hunger relationally and emotionally. This qualitative descriptive study examined co-experiences and interpretations of food insecurity among individuals with SSPD and their case managers in a community mental health setting in the Southeastern United States. We conducted 10 semi-structured interviews with five clients diagnosed with SSPD and five case managers (30 minutes each). Reflexive thematic analysis, guided by Braun and Clarke's framework, identified five interconnected themes: structural tradeoffs that prioritize housing over food; the burden of shame and stigma when seeking help; invisible coping labor required to manage scarcity; physical health impacts, including malnutrition and chronic disease complications; and hunger as a potential catalyst for psychiatric distress and symptom relapse. Triangulation of client and case manager perspectives revealed shared and divergent understandings of these challenges. Findings from this small, single-site study suggest that food insecurity for individuals with SSPD extends beyond material deprivation and requires integrated, trauma-informed, stigma-reducing interventions that link food security with stable housing and mental health recovery in this community mental health context.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is fundamental to high-quality psychiatric nursing care; however, integrating research evidence into routine clinical practice remains a significant challenge. This study aimed to identify perceived barriers to research utilisation (RU) among psychiatric nurses in Türkiye and to examine their associations with selected socio-demographic, professional, and institutional characteristics. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected between November 2018 and October 2019 from 172 psychiatric nurses working in three tertiary psychiatric hospitals in Istanbul. Data collection tools included a sociodemographic and professional characteristics questionnaire, as well as the Turkish version of the BARRIERS Scale. Descriptive statistics, independent-samples t tests, one-way analysis of variance, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression were used for data analysis. Nurses reported a moderate level of perceived barriers to RU (mean total score = 67.0, SD = 17.5). The most frequently reported barriers were lack of time to engage with research, limited access to research in the native language, and insufficient availability of synthesised evidence. Setting-related barriers yielded the highest scores on the subscale. Higher perceived barrier levels were associated with employment in university hospitals, having 3-5 years of experience in psychiatric nursing, and infrequent use of research in practice. In contrast, perceived institutional support and clear organisational expectations for EBP were linked to lower barrier scores. These findings suggest that addressing organisational constraints, improving access to usable research evidence, and allocating protected time for research engagement may facilitate EBP integration in psychiatric nursing practice.