Fostering a culture of engagement: a pilot study of the outcomes of training mental health nurses working in two UK acute admission units in brief solution-focused therapy techniques.
It is widely acknowledged that there are major concerns about quality of care, ward atmosphere, the nature of nurse-patient interactions and patient outcomes in UK psychiatric acute admission units. Brief solution-focused therapy (SFT) is an approach which aims to shift the focus of interactions in professional care away from the traditional concentration on an individual's problems and weaknesses towards a more proactive identification of their strengths and positive coping mechanisms. This approach relies on a collaborative engagement with patients, in which the nurse or therapist using simple language aims to help the patient construct a plan to ensure their immediate safety while working to identify, focus on and reinforce their strengths and coping mechanisms in the achievement of identified future goals. This paper reports on a pilot study whose principal objective was to determine whether a short training in brief SFT for psychiatric nurses can produce measurable improvements in nurse-patient interactions in two psychiatric acute admission wards. In this study, 36 nurses undertook a 2-day training course in SFT and were followed up 3 months after training. Positive results were obtained on a number of measures indicating that nurses had acquired knowledge and skills and were applying SFT techniques in their clinical work.
Hosany
Z
Z
Mental Health Department, Wexham Park Hospital, Berkshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Wexham Street, Slough, Berkshire, UK. zaid.hosany@tvu.ac.uk
Wellman
N
N
Lowe
T
T
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy*; D009726:Nurses; D010343:Patient Admission; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000193:education*; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief; D013663:Teaching; D006113:United Kingdom