New national standards and practice indicators for mental health nursing

Develop and validate a new set of mental health nursing standards and practice indicators for Australia.

How:

1) review the literature to identify current best practice in mental health nursing.  Completed. Literature review now available.
2) compare existing standards against current best practice knowledge
3) add to, replace and modify existing standards to present best practice service delivery and
4) develop new practice indicators (formerly known as ‘clinical indicators'). 

The Delphi Technique will be utilised to combine input from a group of 130 industry experts and come to some consensus.  Suggested tools will be reviewed by methodological experts to check measurability and reliability.  Final selection of tools will be piloted across a broad range of facilities in every state in Australia.

Why:

The current mental health nursing standards and clinical indicators were developed in the mid 1990s.  They need reviewing to reflect contemporary social values and current mental health nursing care. Currently, the use of the standards and clinical indicators has declined and in some cases, ceased. They no longer adequately serve the purpose of providing guidance for practice of appropriate mental health nursing care.

When:

If successful, we expect new standards and practice indicators for mental health nursing to be published in 2010.

Who:

Project Officer: Katie Hangan

A research team led by Dr Christine Neville, Centre for Rural and Remote Area Health, including expert mental health nurses from South East Queensland.  Overseen by a steering committee including ACMHN representation.

Funding:    The ACMHN and the Toowoomba and Ipswich Hospital Foundations.