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Purpose This paper aims to explain how and why the philosophical changes to the pre-registration nursing standards by the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) have resulted in a paradigm shift for mental health nursing. Design/methodology/approach This paper critically examines the changes to nursing education standards and offers an analysis of the problems associated with the shift towards a generic nursing syllabus. Findings The said shift prioritises physical health intervention, skills, procedures and tasks over the uniqueness of mental health nursing. Practical implications This paper argues that mental health nursing skills and qualities such as connection, genuine advocacy and therapeutic-use-of-self have been undervalued and under-represented by the new education standards. Originality/value This paper calls on the profession and service users to join the discourse and inform future mental health nursing identity. Ultimately, this paper calls on the NMC to reconsider the underpinning principles of the education standards and allot due consideration to the specific needs of the mental health nursing profession.

Purpose Workforce development is crucial to the offender personality disorder (OPD) service to provide contemporary, evidenced care and treatment. This study aims to provide an overview and the research evaluation results of a regional higher education programme delivered to a range of criminal justice workers used on the OPD pathway. Design/methodology/approach Three modules were developed and delivered; these are (1) enhancing understanding (20 students), (2) formulation and therapeutic intervention (20 students) and (3) relationships, teams and environments (17 students). A mixed-methods study evaluated participant confidence and compassion. Pre, post and six-month follow-up questionnaires were completed. Additionally, a series of focus groups were conducted to gain in-depth qualitative feedback with a cross-section of students across the modules (N = 7). Quantitative data was collected and analysed separately due to the three modules all having different content. Qualitative data was analysed, and a synthesis of qualitative findings was reported from data taken across the three modules. Findings A total of 52 students participated, drawn from three modules: Module 1 (N = 19); Module 2 (N = 18); Module 3 (N = 15). Confidence in working with people with a personality disorder or associated difficulties improved significantly following completion of any of the modules, whereas compassion did not. Results have been synthesised and have assisted in the future shaping of modules to meet the learning needs of students. Research limitations/implications Further evaluation of the effectiveness of educational programmes requires attention, as does the longer-term durability of effect. Further research is required to explore the post-training impact upon practice, and further exploration is required and larger sample sizes to draw definitive conclusions related to compassion. Practical implications This unique model of co-production that draws upon the expertise of people with lived experience, occupational frontline and academics is achievable and well received by students and can be reproduced elsewhere. Social implications The positive uptake and results of this study indicate a need for expansion of accessible OPD workforce training opportunities across the UK. Further research is required to explore student feedback and comparisons of effectiveness comparing different modes of training delivery, especially in light of the pandemic, which has forced organisations and higher education institutions to develop more digital and distance learning approaches to their portfolios. Originality/value This novel research provides an evaluation of the only higher education credit-bearing modules in the UK focussed solely upon the OPD workforce and aligned with the national drive for non-credit bearing awareness level training “knowledge and understanding framework” (KUF).

The Emergency Department (ED) may already be an invalidating environment for those patients diagnosed with a personality disorder, with negative attitudes from staff perpetuating feelings of dismissal and rejection. Despite, however, personality disorder being more prevalent across health services including EDs, there is a lack of literature considering how achieving the target may take a priority over clinical need, leading to adverse outcomes for those patients diagnosed with a personality disorder.Expanding on Hardern's application of the concept of Destructive Goal Pursuit to the four-hour target, existing literature is used to illustrate how pressures to meet the four-hour target may a lead to distortions of clinical priorities and to adverse clinical outcomes for this patient group. This paper challenges the concept of the target as being realistic and helpful to those patients

This article casts a critical lens on the current Nursing and Midwifery Council standards for nurse education and their potential impact on mental health nursing in the UK. It discusses how the standards appear to be transitioning mental health nursing towards a generic, task-orientated nursing role and in doing so, are undervaluing the unique contributions of the profession to contemporary mental health care. It also argues that this descent towards genericism not only risks the erosion of the specialist skill set required of mental health nurses by service users, but also aligns mental health nursing care closer with neoliberal policy and with biomedicine to the further detriment of patient care. This article warns that this current period marks a critical time for the profession and that collective, assertive action is needed now to safeguard the profession's distinct presence on the UK's nursing register.