Joy Penman
University of South Australia, Australia
Title: Enticing new graduates to pursue Mental health nursing
Biography
Biography: Joy Penman
Abstract
The recruitment and retention of qualified mental health nurses is a concern with an aging mental health workforce in Australia. It is a challenge because mental health nursing is not a popular career path for most nurses entering the workforce. Mental health nursing is one of the least desirable career options. It is important to determine the factors that may divert or attract students/nurses to mental health nursing. The aims of the study are to determine the factors that motivate nurses in rural and regional South Australia to pursue mental health nursing, and to identify the strategies that might entice students/nurses to pursue mental health nursing as a professional career. A descriptive qualitative study design with semi-structured interviews was used. Ethics approval was obtained from the university and the Country Health. Key individuals were approached in various hospitals and community health centres to distribute information letters and promote the study. Fifteen (15) face to face interviews were conducted, transcripts transcribed verbatim, and content analysis undertaken. The majority of the interviewees were in the 50-year age range. Thirteen (13) were females and two (2) were males. The majority had varied nursing backgrounds before going into mental health nursing. The factors that motivated the participants to pursue mental health nursing were complex, multifactorial and may be categorised as intrinsic and/or extrinsic. The strategies that might entice students/nurses to pursue mental health nursing were many, but the most popular suggestion was the provision of high quality meaningful clinical placements in mental health.