Christopher Patterson

• BN (Hons), MNurs(Mental Health), PhD (Uni South Australia)
• Lecturer at University of Wollongong

Aim This paper will explore the application of situation awareness in nursing to determine its suitability as a framework to study how the decision to admit or not admit a person as an involuntary patient is made. Background The decision by a specially qualified nurse to admit or not admit a person to a mental health facility against their will rem...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/medu.13226/abstract The concept of situation awareness is increasingly a focus of discussion and research in health. But what relevance, if any, does it have for the education of health practitioners? Well, a lot really. Just as we have seen in a range of non-health disciplines, the contextualisation and...

Mental health nurses (MHN) are at the forefront of care and treatment within acute inpatient settings. Research suggests that newly-graduated MHN are unsure about the skills and knowledge that they are expected to possess, and are expected to practice at a level that they are not prepared for in their undergraduate courses; however, research focusi...

Introduction: There exists a need for innovative thinking to identify new clinical placement opportunities for nursing students. Recovery-based clinical placements for mental health nurse students remain unique and require investigation. Aim: To examine the learning experience of Bachelor of Nursing students who undertook an innovative mental he...

Background: The way people who experience mental illness are perceived by health care professionals, which often includes stigmatising attitudes, can have a significant impact on treatment outcomes and on their quality of life. Objective: To determine whether stigma towards people with mental illness varied for undergraduate nursing students who...

Escalating rates of mental illness emphasise the necessity for sufficient and appropriate mental health services. However, stigma and discrimination remain and can be seen through the multifaceted ways nurses communicate. Clinical placements, where nursing students engage directly with individuals experiencing mental illness, are vital for addressi...

Clinical placements are a critical component in any pre‐registration student nurse's skill development and play an influential role in career specialisation upon registration. However, students are reporting to feel anxious and under prepared attending clinical placements, especially within mental health settings. Such a concern was highlighted in...

Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and psychosis represent a global health challenge. Stigma surrounding mental health continues to hinder help‐seeking behaviours for people with mental illness and as this study demonstrates, nursing students as well. However, if student nurses are reluctant to seek help for mental health issues,...

Accessible Summary What Is Known on the Subject Pre‐registration nursing students report high rates of stigma, leading to low help‐seeking attitudes when seeking help for mental health issues. Traditional mental health clinical placements can improve stigma related to attitudes and social distance for pre‐registration nursing students. What the P...

Introduction The recommended objective for mental health plans and policies is the adoption of recovery approaches to mental healthcare. Mental health recovery is no longer defined by symptom resolution but as a journey towards a meaningful life from the consumer’s own perspective. Recovery approaches focus on consumers’ strengths, feelings of well...

Accessible Summary What is known on the subject Health professionals, including nurses, are shown to have stigmatizing attitudes towards mental illness. For nursing students who are in their formative years of professional development, mental illness stigma can severely impact the care they provide. Little research has investigated multi‐national...

Goal-setting is a tool that empowers consumer recovery. Though the pandemic has affected consumer goal-setting, the nature and extent of this impact have not been examined in a recovery setting. The aim of this study is to assess whether the recovery goals of individuals with serious mental illness changed in association with the COVID-19 pandemic....

Developing therapeutic relationship skills as well as clinical skill confidence is critical for nursing students. While the nursing literature has examined multiple factors that influence student learning, little is known about the role of student motivation in skill development in non-traditional placement settings. Although therapeutic skills and...

Background: Nursing professional health courses have been reported to be very exhaustive and stressful, with most nursing students reporting moderate levels of stress. Purpose: This study was designed to compare the spiritual well-being, coping strategies, psychological well-being, anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation between Taiwanese and...

Introduction: While the mental health needs of populations are increasing, the targeted training of mental health professionals, specifically nurses, is required. Stigma surrounding mental health from nursing students exists, highlighting educational gaps. To address this, the involvement of consumers in undergraduate education has resulted in a p...

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Arts-based research is an established and accepted research approach and systematic reviews have been published on this methodology. There are many possible data collection techniques and study designs within arts-based research, which have been implemented but not yet systematically reviewed. Rationales and challenge...

Background Early assessment and evidence-based management of depression can significantly improve recovery and enhance well-being. People with depression often present to general practice as their first contact with the health system. Although few general practice nurses have specialist mental health qualifications, to optimise outcomes they must b...

Given the profound role that media play in public opinion, there exists an ongoing necessity to understand the portrayal of mental illness by journalists. There is a plethora of studies that have examined how mental illness is portrayed in the media, but few studies have sought to understand what journalist opinions about mental illness are, and no...

Therapeutic recreation is beneficial for people with and without disabilities, promoting an empowered, connected, and joyful life. The present study aimed to analyse canvas art created on a therapeutic recreation programme called Recovery Camp, to discover what they reveal about the shared experiences which have occurred. This study utilized an art...

Cultural competence is a viewed as a necessary set of skills within nursing, and there is a need for student support in this area. This is particularly important in mental health care, with two skills considered crucial for providing quality care: therapeutic relationship skills and positive attitudes. With the objective of initiating an educationa...

Objective: The objective of the review was to identify, appraise, and synthesize the best available evidence related to participation in outdoor nature-based therapeutic recreation (TR) programs for adults with a mental illness living in the community. Introduction: Therapeutic recreation is posited to be beneficial for persons living with a men...

Therapeutic recreation programs utilize leisure to maximize a person's overall health and well-being. The focus of this study is a professional experience placement held within an outdoor recreation center involving student nurses and people with a lived experience of mental illness. The study aimed to explore student nurse's beliefs about their pr...

Aim and objectives To explore whether nursing student’s experiences at Recovery Camp have impacted their current nursing practices. Background Recently, there has been a move toward more holistic models of nursing care, which seek to break down barriers of stigmatisation and embrace the tenets of self‐determination, to acknowledge people with live...

Nursing clinical placements provide a unique opportunity for students to develop and hone the skills and knowledge that will be used upon graduation in their future professional practice. There is an on-going inquiry into elements that may facilitate better leaning outcomes in a variety of teaching and learning settings, including clinical experien...

This is a process paper that describes the development of a wellbeing brochure, shared between university researchers, a consumer research advocate, and fully informed by people who are living with mental illness (experts by experience). The purpose of this brochure was to provide strategies for maintaining wellbeing for EBEs, after attending a psy...

This paper provides a feasibility study of estimating the heartrate and the breathing rate, using the waveform spectrum recorded by impulse radio ultra wideband (IR-UWB) radar. An algorithm is proposed that helps to separate the heartrate signal from the breathing signal. Furthermore, a Kalman filter is introduced that helps to reduce the noise fac...

Background Clinical placements are essential in preparing students for professional practice. Given the serious negative impact of stigma on people with lived experiences of mental illness, it is essential to explore whether the educational setting of a clinical placement can influence mental health stigma. Aims Using a Self-Determination Theory l...

Theory and clinical practicum in mental health are an important component for students in most nursing curriculum. Some studies have shown that knowledge and confidence in caring for people with mental illness improve after mental health clinical placements while others had contrasting results. Our study examined the relationship between clinical p...

Personal recovery is a primary focus for health care professionals and people with mental illness, with current research focused on understanding the concepts and factors that facilitate a positive recovery journey. A person's ability to seek help is an area that has demonstrated promise. Although there is a wealth of literature that exists on the...

Objective: The objective of this review is to identify, appraise and synthesize the best available qualitative evidence on participation in outdoor therapeutic recreation programs for adults with a mental illness living in the community INTRODUCTION:: Therapeutic recreation is posited to be beneficial for persons living with a mental illness. Rese...

Background/problem: Stigma and stigmatization are important concepts in the area of mental health and illness. Nursing and nurse education are continuously examining ways to understand and address the stigma toward people with a lived experience of mental illness. While the negative influence of stigma is understood, the variables that influence th...

The training of future health professionals is a complex and dynamic endeavour, whereby students engage in a variety of experiences and learning activities. Skills developed through classes are applied and further developed within authentic settings, such as clinical placements. While there is a wealth of literature that has examined the influence...

Over the last three decades, resilience has become a key area in mental health research, practice and policy, due to its potential to positively impact on wellbeing and quality of life. Research findings have identified that resilience positively correlates with an individual’s subjective sense of well-being and decreased mental health problems. Gi...

Background: Mental health issues are increasingly prevalent within the community. Many people experiencing mental health issues have established relationships with primary care providers, including general practice nurses (GPNs). With the recent growth of general practice nursing, it is timely to explore the evidence for GPNs to provide mental hea...

This Presentation Won 'Best Presentation Board's Pick- Day One'. Recreation has the ability to empower, heal and build up individuals of all ages, backgrounds and forms of disadvantage. This presentation aims to discuss the Therapeutic Recreation Intervention – ‘Recovery Camp’ and its developing evidence base in the mental health therapeutic recre...

Professional placement experiences have been considered as an approach to improving nursing attitudes towards mental health nursing and selection of mental health nursing as a career. Mental health nursing placements are now occurring in less traditional settings, however, published research of these placements remains scarce. The aim of this non-e...

Background: Historically, mental health research has been strongly influenced by the underlying positivism of the quantitative paradigm. Quantitative research dominates scientific enquiry and contributes significantly to understanding our natural world. It has also greatly benefitted the medical model of healthcare. However, the more literary, sil...

Nursing students across the globe are expected to undertake clinical placements. To date, there have been no studies that have examined the potential educational benefits for undergraduate nursing students engaged in a mental health clinical placement grounded in self-determination theory. The present study examined the experiences of undergraduate...

Behaviors associated with resilience can be seen as tantamount to coping with stress and vulnerability. This is important for people who live with mental illness. This study aimed to determine whether key basic psychological needs influence resilience among people with a lived experience of mental illness. A total of 159 consumers with a lived expe...

Mental health has been a national health priority area since 1996 and its current emphasis in the media signifies its importance for the Australian community and thus its place in nursing curricula.

Leisure, risk and safety are for most leisure practitioners across the globe, thoughts that arise in quick succession to determine the viability of a leisure intervention. However, in a risk aware world so focused on safety, is Leisure too safely structured to be truly beneficial to the individual?, Rarely are leisure seekers given the opportunity...

Therapeutic recreation in Australia is a developing profession; Therapeutic approaches of recreation to healthcare in particular mental health are still developing in a risk aware, medicalised model of care (Pegg & Lord, 2008). This paper will outline the University of Wollongong’s Therapeutic Recreation intervention ‘Recovery Camp’. This Experient...

Background Mental health recovery is still largely clinically defined and as such can lack person centeredness. To address this, recovery oriented experiences are required which recognise the holistic and diverse needs of individuals. Aim The aim of the study was to examine the experiences of people living with a mental illness who participated in...

The provision of mental health care has recently focused on the concept of recovery-oriented care. Clinical placements are important for imparting recovery-oriented knowledge and skills to students. However, it has been determined that not all clinical placements are beneficial for future nursing professionals. The aim of this study was to examine...

The concept of stigma and the stigmatizing behaviours of health-care professionals can have a profound influence on people with mental illness. A key construct that has been identified as influencing our behaviours is self-determination. As such, in the present study, we attempted to examine the connection and influence of motivational measures on...

This issue of Nurse Researcher focuses on ethnographic research in nursing. The three themed papers provide an overview of the ethnographic accomplishment dealing with methodological issues in the conduct of ethnographic work and how nursing and nurses’ work is represented. The authors take account of how contemporary approaches to ethnography are...

Preregistration education needs to ensure that student nurses are properly trained with the required skills and knowledge, and have the confidence to work with people who have a mental illness. With increased attention on non-traditional mental health clinical placements, further research is required to determine the effects of non-traditional ment...

People living with mental illness (consumers) often experience difficulty in achieving life goals, particularly those important for their recovery. An innovative approach to address consumers' goals for recovery can be found in the form of therapeutic recreation (TR) initiatives. Recovery Camp is a five-day TR program, bringing together people with...

Engagement in clinical placements is mandatory for all pre-registration nursing programs. Although clinical placements can be valuable, recent literature illustrates that placements within a mental health setting can vary in their educational development. The aim of the current study was to examine the potential learning benefit of 20 pre-registrat...

Background: Personal learning environments (PLE) have been shown to be a critical part of how students negotiate and manage their own learning. Understandings of PLEs appear to be constrained by narrow definitions that focus primarily on technological engagement with a range of web tools and associated applications. This paper addresses a gap in th...

Background: Self-determination has been strongly associated with engagement in positive health behaviours, emerging as an area of importance within mental health care (Craike & Coleman, 2005). People living with a mental illness, such as mood or affective disorders, report significantly low levels of this construct (Okon & Webb, 2014), experiencing...

Many individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) require the support of an informal carer, such as a family member or close friend, to assist with everyday living. The difficulties and altered life circumstances experienced by individuals with SMI result in carers taking on significant responsibilities. The current study aimed to address the benef...

Nurses and Midwives must, as part of their practice, assess for changes in mood or patterns of behaviour that may indicate the Dad is experiencing distress or ill health.

BACKGROUND: Interventions to reduce significant health disparities experienced by people living with mental illness are vital. Health disparities lead to social isolation and a lack of physical activity which can contribute to an already significantly reduced life expectancy. Therapeutic recreation (TR), as an intervention is regarded as a means not...

In an Australian health context so focused on the physiological areas of disease and the mainly physiological treatments for most psychological issues. What if we viewed the psychological needs of the human being as important as the physiological? Oxygen, Water, Nutrition as important as Autonomy, Competence and Relatedness? That within our homes,...

In 2008, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report on integrating primary health into primary care. The key message of the report was 'integrating mental health services into primary care is the most viable way of ensuring that people get the mental healthcare they need' (WHO, 2008, p1).

Mental health consumers are often socially isolated and may lack the basic leisure competencies which serve as a critical building block for community ( re ) integration. Therapeutic recreation ( TR ), as a treatment modality for people with mental illness , is yet to be fully embraced in the Australian health‐care setting , despite having a strong...

Background: Given the importance of perceived control to mental health and recovery, research is needed to determine strategies to increase perceived control for people with a mental illness. Aim: Investigate the implications of a therapeutic recreation program on the perceived control of people with a mental illness. Method: Participants of a...

Purpose People who access health services often have a range of needs that require the involvement of members from a multidisciplinary team. Teaching future health professionals about the importance of a multidisciplinary approach can be challenging. The aim of this paper is to describe a project called Recovery Camp that enhanced multidisciplinary...

In the present study, we evaluate the impact of participation in a mental health recovery camp on the clinical confidence of undergraduate nursing students in dealing with individuals with mental illness. Twenty undergraduate nursing students who participated in the recovery camp completed the Mental Health Nursing Clinical Confidence Scale both be...

It may be hard to get men to talk about their mental health, but that is just what we need to do.

The function of admitting a person to a mental health facility as an involuntary patient is a central component of contemporary mental health legislation and practice and is often based on the decision of a suitably qualified professional. Making the decision to admit someone as an involuntary patient is identified as a complex and critical practic...

s Australian College of Mental Health Nursing 38th International Conference – The Fabric of Life is like having your own design team tasked with a 'make over' though not limited to the outfi t, we consider the shoes, hair and the whole ensemble to ensure when walking the catwalk of life you are at your best. We can be more than a patch-upservice if...

The local branch of the ACMHN on the Sunshine Coast organised a fi lm evening for community viewing to recognise the theme of Mental Health Week – Be Active, Get Connected, Stay Involved. The fi lm selected was Lars and the Real Girl a North American feature fi lm produced in 2007. The screenplay by focused on a shy, lonely, socially inept young ma...