Mental health service user involvement in nurse education: exploring the issues

Abstract

This paper reports on findings and issues arising from a study designed to promote mental health service users' involvement in a preregistration nursing curriculum. Users' views about the knowledge, skills and attributes required by mental health nurses were explored to inform the curriculum design. Strategies that would facilitate long term, active user involvement in the design and delivery of the curriculum were also explored. Findings are presented with concurrent discussion of issues arising from the research process in relation to user involvement in education. The issue of 'conflict' explores findings relating to users' views of a 'good' mental health nurse and inherent conflicts between user and professional views are highlighted. The representativeness of the research participants is explored and debated in relation to service user involvement in nurse education. Finally, the concepts of 'involvement' and 'tokenism' are discussed and recommendations made about how active user involvement in nurse education can be achieved.

How do managers and leaders in the National Health Service and social care respond to service user involvement in mental health services in both its traditional and emergent forms? The ENSUE study

“…SUI in mental health services has become an integral aspect of service delivery and has developed across several areas including training, service development, management and research. 31,38,55 Despite widespread promotion of a range of different approaches to incorporating the views of SUs in the development of health services, questions remain about the effectiveness of these different methods. In response to the relative lack of research on the impact of user involvement, Rose et al 31,39 highlighted the need for a further exploration of the outcomes of user involvement, instead of the ongoing focus on research examining user involvement processes and mechanisms.…”

“…55,[57][58][59] A significant number of professionals had experience in involving SUs in service evaluation, although they were more likely than SUs to report a positive impact of this form of engagement. This is not surprising, as the results of evaluation initiatives -such as the national patient survey -are rarely fed back to patients, and professionals may be more aware of the outcomes of service improvement initiatives.…”

Ethical Dilemmas are not Simply Black and White

“…To ensure participation on a meaningful and respectful basis, considerable time and resources need to be set aside when engaging service users and carers in the development of social work education (Reynolds & Read, 1999;Forrest et al, 2000;Molyneux & Irvine, 2004;Humphreys, 2005;Basset et al, 2006: Stevens andTanner, 2006). We took a lot of time to resolve the issues on payment, acknowledging that participants' contribution should be recognised in a respectful way.…”

Service User Involvement: Enriching the Learning Experience

“…To involve service users within the educational context meant that the students were working along side individuals who were not necessarily currently utilising services so it added another perspective to the educational process (Forrest et al 2000).…”

“…Deegan (1992) identifies a central attitudinal barrier that people with mental health problems can be ignored which is still evident today 15 years on, as individuals begin the journey along the Cycle of Disempowerment and Despair with the ethos that the professional 'knows best' ( Deegan (1992). Forrest et al (2000) noted that service user perceptions of their needs together with the level of support, that their need differs from the 'professionals' perspective. Repper and Perkins (2001) highlighted the need for mental health care workers to recognise that individuals are able to make their own choices and decisions.…”