Aim The aim was to describe the ways that nursing staff in psychiatric inpatient care understand nursing. Background Nursing in psychiatric care is marginalized with ambiguous role definitions and imperceptible activities. Nurse managers' capabilities to establish a direction and shared vision are crucial to motivate nursing staff to take part in practice development. However, before establishing a shared vision it is important to identify the different ways nursing can be understood. Methods Sixteen individual semi‐structured interviews with nursing staff members were analysed using a phenomenographic approach. Results Five ways of understanding nursing were identified. These understandings were interrelated based on the way that the patient, nursing interventions and the goal of nursing were understood. Conclusion The diversity of identified understandings illuminates the challenges of creating a shared vision of roles, values and goals for nursing. Implications for Nursing Management Awareness of staff members' different understandings of nursing can help nurse managers to establish a shared vision. To be useful, a shared vision has to be implemented together with clear role definitions, professional autonomy of nurses and support for professional development. Implementation of such measures serves as a foundation to make nursing visible and thereby enhance the quality of patient care.

A promising intervention in mental health in-patient care is behavioural activation (BA). Interventions based on BA can be used by mental health nurses and other staff members. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' and staff members' experiences of a nursing staff-led behavioural group intervention in mental health in-patient care. The intervention was implemented at three adult acute general mental health in-patient wards in a public hospital setting in Sweden. A self-administrated questionnaire, completed by 84 patients and 34 nurses and nurse assistants, was administered, and nonparametric data analysed using descriptive statistics. Our findings revealed that both patients and nursing staff ranked nursing care and care environment as important aspects in the recovery process. Patients and staff members reported overall positive experiences of the group sessions. Patients with higher frequencies of attendance and patients satisfied with overall care had a more positive attitude towards the intervention. A more positive experience of being a group leader was reported by staff members who had been leading groups more than ten times. The most common impeding factor during implementation, reported by staff members, was a negative attitude to change. Conducive factors were having support from a psychologist and the perception that patients were showing interest. These positive experiences reported by patients and nursing staff, combined with previous research in this field, are taking us one step further in evaluating group sessions based on BA as a meaningful nursing intervention in mental health in-patient care.

Knowledge of how nurses are described in recruitment advertisements can aid assessment of the current status of professional psychiatric-mental health nursing and inform services dealing with the challenges of nurse recruitment. This study used content analysis to explore descriptions of nurses in psychiatric-mental health care in a purposive sample of 75 recruitment advertisements collected in Sweden in February 2019. The descriptions were interpreted as focussing on their being willing and able to function in discouraging practice environments, matching the ideal of psychiatric-mental health nursing poorly. The study suggested a need to align the ideals and realities of the nursing profession.

The aim of the study was to describe nursing and medical students' experiences of participation in an interprofessional education (IPE) activity, "round school," during their clinical rotations in psychiatric care. Data were collected in six focus groups with 32 students from nursing and medical programs, focusing on their experiences of the IPE activity and their reflections on interprofessional collaboration. The students considered the round school to be meaningful and true-to-life. Important conditions for learning were well-informed staff, sufficient time for preparation and feedback, clear routines, instructions, and an open climate. Non-explicit instructions and limited preunderstanding of psychiatric care left the students feeling uncertain. Students' reflections regarding interprofessional competences encompassed both similarities and differences in roles, responsibilities, and collaboration. Evidence of hierarchical and stereotypical images of the nurse-physician relationship was identified. Round school is an example of how IPE can be integrated into the units' regular ward rounds. However, if the clinical everyday work is not based on collaboration between different professions, it can be arduous to implement IPE. Well-planned preparations are necessary, both in the clinic and at the faculty.