Integrity and Mental Health Nursing: Factors to Consider

Integrity is interpreted as a holistic phenomenon that incorporates personal characteristics, cognition, interpersonal awareness, and practical enactment—ultimately relating to matters society deems worthwhile. This approach enables integrity to be understood as both a personal morality and a social (group) morality. Mental health nurses embedded in a hierarchical bureaucratic organisation may act according to their personal morality and display moral strength in many situations; however, if the social morality of the group is at variance with their convictions, as individuals their capacity to be courageous and enact integrity will be tested. A likely consequence will be that those with the most cherished positive patient care values, those with a stronger adherence to moral convictions about the public good, and those with a clearly developed understanding of integrity parameters will depart, and possibly leave the profession. In this article, we provide an overview of the structural and contextual realities of nursing work within organisations and discuss how these factors can compromise whole unit integrity and seriously challenge mental health nurses’ commitment to enacting integrity. In the final section of this article, broad suggestions for strengthening individual and group integrity are provided.     

Native American Children and Adolescents: Cultural Distinctiveness and Mental Health Needs

Native American families have powerful reservoirs for resilience. Many families experience oppression, exploitation, and poverty that contribute to mental health disturbances. Cultural traditions associated with harmony can promote positive mental health for Native American children and adolescents. Health care providers will benefit from knowing risks, cultural expressions of coping, and a framework for contextual assessment and intervention. The purpose of this paper is to respond to the challenge of developing practices, programs, and policies that are culturally sensitive and helpful for people who need nursing care.     

Teaching Kids to Cope: A Preventive Mental Health Nursing Strategy for Adolescents

TOPIC. The theoretical base, implementation, and effectiveness of Teaching Kids to Cope (TKCO).
PURPOSE. To inforin clinicians about the benefits nnd uses of TKCO, a 10-week psychoeducational group interziention designed to enhance the coping repertoire of adolescents.
SOURCE. Authors' clinical experience.
CONCLUSIONS. Follozuing the TKCO intervention, students demonstrated less depressive symptomatology and improved coping behaviors. Further research is needed to test the intervention on a larger group and to determine its effectiveness.     

Leadership and Mental Health Nursing

This discussion paper argues for the critical importance of successful leadership for effective mental health nursing, observing that nursing leadership has long been regarded problematically by the profession. Using empirical and theoretical evidence we debate what leadership styles and strategies are most likely to result in effective, recovery-orientated mental health nursing. Models of transformational and distributed leadership are found to be highly congruent with mental health nursing values, yet the literature suggests it is a type of leadership more often desired than experienced. We note how the scholarly literature tends to ignore the “elephant in the room” that is organizational power, and we question whether transformational leadership pursued within a specific clinical context can influence beyond those confines. Nevertheless it is within these contexts that consumers experience nursing, effective or otherwise, thus we should advocate what is known about effective leadership wherever it is required.     

Mental Health Care Rights of Adolescents: What Mental Health Nurses Need to Know

Adolescents have certain rights regarding mental health care. There is a need for healthcare professionals, including nurses, to become more aware and knowledgeable of these rights. This article reviews the medical/legal rights of adolescents and their parents, and presents a history of relevant changes that have occurred in the parent-child relationship. It discusses also current issues pertinent to the mental health care of adolescents and identifies researchable questions.