TY - JOUR
KW - Attitude of Health Personnel
KW - Case Management/organization & administration
KW - Community Health Nursing/organization & administration
KW - Community Mental Health Services/organization & administration
KW - Conflict (Psychology)
KW - Continuity of Patient Care/organization & administration
KW - Deinstitutionalization
KW - Focus Groups
KW - Health Facility Closure
KW - Health Services Research
KW - Humans
KW - Interprofessional Relations
KW - Needs Assessment
KW - Nurse's Role/psychology
KW - Nursing Administration Research
KW - Nursing Methodology Research
KW - Nursing Staff/organization & administration/psychology
KW - Organizational Innovation
KW - Personnel Selection
KW - Personnel Staffing and Scheduling/organization & administration
KW - Psychiatric Nursing/organization & administration
KW - South Australia
KW - Workload/psychology/statistics & numerical data
AU - J. Henderson
AU - E. Willis
AU - B. Walter
AU - L. Toffoli
A1 - 
AB - The National Mental Health Strategy has been associated with the movement of service delivery into the community, creating greater demand for community services. The literature suggests that the closure of psychiatric beds and earlier discharge from inpatient services, have contributed to an intensification of the workload of community mental health nurses. This paper reports findings from the first stage of an action research project to develop a workload equalization tool for community mental health nurses. The study presents data from focus groups conducted with South Australian community mental health nurses to identify issues that impact upon their workload. Four themes were identified, relating to staffing and workforce issues, clients' characteristics or needs, regional issues, and the impact of the health-care system. The data show that the workload of community mental health nurses is increased by the greater complexity of needs of community mental health clients. Service change has also resulted in poor integration between inpatient and community services and tension between generic case management and specialist roles resulting in nurses undertaking tasks for other case managers. These issues, along with difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, have led to the intensification of community mental health work and a crisis response to care with less time for targeted interventions.
BT - International journal of mental health nursing
C5 - Education & Workforce
CP - 3
CY - Australia
DO - 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00528.x
IS - 3
JF - International journal of mental health nursing
N2 - The National Mental Health Strategy has been associated with the movement of service delivery into the community, creating greater demand for community services. The literature suggests that the closure of psychiatric beds and earlier discharge from inpatient services, have contributed to an intensification of the workload of community mental health nurses. This paper reports findings from the first stage of an action research project to develop a workload equalization tool for community mental health nurses. The study presents data from focus groups conducted with South Australian community mental health nurses to identify issues that impact upon their workload. Four themes were identified, relating to staffing and workforce issues, clients' characteristics or needs, regional issues, and the impact of the health-care system. The data show that the workload of community mental health nurses is increased by the greater complexity of needs of community mental health clients. Service change has also resulted in poor integration between inpatient and community services and tension between generic case management and specialist roles resulting in nurses undertaking tasks for other case managers. These issues, along with difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff, have led to the intensification of community mental health work and a crisis response to care with less time for targeted interventions.
PP - Australia
PY - 2008
SN - 1445-8330; 1445-8330
SP - 162
EP - 170
EP - 
T1 - Community mental health nursing: Keeping pace with care delivery?
T2 - International journal of mental health nursing
TI - Community mental health nursing: Keeping pace with care delivery?
U1 - Education & Workforce
U2 - 18460077
U3 - 10.1111/j.1447-0349.2008.00528.x
VL - 17
VO - 1445-8330; 1445-8330
Y1 - 2008
ER -