Mental health pre-registration nursing students' experiences of group clinical supervision: a UK longitudinal qualitative study.

There is widespread international interest in the use of clinical supervision in nursing as well as recognition of the need to introduce nursing students to its concepts and value. This article reports on a three-year longitudinal qualitative focus group study which explored students' views and experiences of a group clinical supervision initiative. Students attended supervision groups facilitated by teaching staff over their three year pre-registration mental health nursing course, with a main aim of developing skills, knowledge and attitudes as supervisees. The findings showed that students derived benefit from the experience, gained greater awareness of the nature of supervision and became active supervisees within their groups. These benefits took time to emerge and were not universal however. While the findings support the value of exposing students to the experience of group clinical supervision educators wishing to implement such a programme need to address a host of issues. These include; the preparation of students, structural and resource concerns, and issues relating to group dynamics.

Problem based learning in mental health nursing: the students' experience.

Problem based learning (PBL) is well established within the field of health-care education for professionals worldwide, although little has been done to explore the experiences of students undertaking a PBL course in mental health nursing. Without firm evidence of the benefits of PBL, educationalists in mental health might be reluctant to view it as an option in curricula design. This U.K. study examined the experiences of pre-registration post-graduate mental health student nurses undertaking a 2-year educational course in which all teaching and assessment followed a PBL philosophy. Focus groups were used throughout the course to elicit in-depth qualitative data that was analysed by applying a constant comparative method. The analysis of the data uncovered the following broad themes: 'moves to autonomy, 'surviving the groups' and 'the impact of PBL'. The findings show that participants had mainly positive experiences and gained a range of study and interpersonal skills central to mental health nursing. Participants described initial anxieties resulting from engagement in PBL. However, they increasingly gained confidence in this approach, exercising increasing control over the PBL process. Despite this increased autonomy, participants continued to value the input of skilled facilitators. A recurring issue centred on the potential for interpersonal conflict within the student group and its impact on their learning. It is suggested that more research is needed examining the use of PBL in mental health nursing.

Lecturers' accounts of facilitating clinical supervision groups within a pre-registration mental health nursing curriculum.

In 1994 the Department of Health recommended that nurses be introduced to the process of clinical supervision during pre-registration training. Since then a body of literature has emerged, largely focusing on students' experiences of a variety of training initiatives in supervision. There is however a paucity of literature exploring the experiences of nursing lecturers engaged in such initiatives. This paper reports the findings from one part of a three-year prospective longitudinal study examining mental health students' and lecturers' experiences of group clinical supervision undertaken as part of a pre-registration course. In this part of the study eight mental health nursing lecturers participated in semi-structured individual interviews in which they discussed their experiences of facilitating student supervision groups. Content analysis of the interview data produced eight major categories: 'attitudes to supervision'; 'perceptions of the student experience'; 'preparation and support'; 'approaches to supervision'; 'the "good" supervisor'; 'the lecturer as supervisor'; 'the structure and process of sessions; and 'the content of supervision'. The findings suggest that the idea of undertaking supervision for students is attractive to lecturers. However, several issues need to be addressed if this type of initiative is to be successful in preparing students for their future role as supervisee.

Group clinical supervision for mental health nursing students.

Clinical supervision is recognized as important for developing safe professional practice in nursing. Although attention has been given to the development of training and education in clinical supervision for registered nurses, less discussion exists regarding these issues for pre-registration mental health nursing student to the theory and practice of group clinical supervision. In particular, this article raises awareness and promotes discussion of the practical issues involved in such an initiative.

Mental health nursing students' relationships with the pharmaceutical industry.

INTRODUCTION: The medical profession's relationship with the pharmaceutical industry (PI) has come under increased scrutiny in recent years, however little is known on the subject in mental health nursing. AIMS: The study sought to investigate: (1) the frequency of contact between mental health nursing students and PI employees; (2) students' attitudes and beliefs about their relationship with the PI; (3) the range of 'gifts', promotional items and hospitality accepted or seen in clinical environments by students in a one year period; and (4) students' attitudes to 'gifts', promotional items and hospitality offered by the industry. METHOD: Employing a survey design, a 35-item questionnaire was distributed to 472 students at two universities in the UK. Data were analysed from 347 respondents by means of descriptive statistics and simple content analysis. RESULTS: The findings suggest that students have significant contact with the industry through one-to-one meetings with pharmaceutical representatives (PRs) and by attending events giving information on specific drugs or general mental health issues. Students also identified a number of benefits (e.g. receiving "up-to-date" information on new drugs) and problems (e.g. the potential influence exerted on practitioners to use their drugs) arising out of this contact. Most students (79.8%) had accepted some form of 'gift' from the industry but few (11.5%) believed it was unacceptable to do so. The presence of promotional items in the clinical environment was seen as advertising (84.4%) but few students (19.3%) believed clinical environment should be free of these items. Over half (57.1%) of the students believed that PRs did not always give unbiased information but thought that they and mental health nurses in general would be able to detect any bias. CONCLUSIONS: In parallel with medicine, the study has shown that the pharmaceutical industry has at least the potential to influence mental health nursing students. Within medicine this realisation has triggered a vigorous debate on how medical schools should respond to the promotional activities of the PI. We suggest this study goes some way to demonstrating there is a need for these issues to be debated in the education of mental health nurses.

Group clinical supervision in pre-registration nurse training: the views of mental health nursing students.

In 1994 the Department of Health recommended that nurses be introduced to the process of clinical supervision during pre-registration training. In response to this recommendation, the now defunct English National Board (ENB) stated that: "It will be a requirement that all students of pre-registration nursing programmes receive preparation in what to expect from clinical supervision" (ENB, 1995, p. 4). Despite the fact that no further guidance was issued there is an emerging body of literature exploring this area. This paper reports findings from the initial phase of a three-year prospective longitudinal study examining students' experiences of group clinical supervision undertaken as part of their pre-registration training. In this part of the study 32 mental health nursing students participated in focus groups in which they discussed their expectations of clinical supervision. Content analysis of the data produced five major categories: 'the nature of clinical supervision'; 'roles and responsibilities'; 'staying safe and doing no harm'; 'being in a group'; and 'being a student'. The findings suggest that the idea of supervision is attractive to students, although there are significant anxieties both about supervision in general and of group supervision in particular.