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Nursing skill mix in inpatient mental health wards varies considerably between countries. Some countries have an all-registered mental health nurse workforce; others have a mix of registered mental health and registered nurses. Understanding the optimal nursing skill mix in mental health inpatient units would inform service planning. This report aims to examine the association between the registered mental health nurse-to-registered nurse ratio and psychiatric readmission (or referral to community crisis services) in adult mental health inpatients. A systematic review was performed. We searched key databases for observational and experimental studies. Two researchers completed title-and-abstract and full-text screening. Our search identified 7956 citations. A full-text review of four papers was undertaken. No studies met our inclusion criteria. We report an empty review. Despite the obvious importance of the research question for the safe staffing of inpatient mental health services, there are no studies that have tested this association.

Overall, contact tracing and TST in this setting appear to yield a high proportion of people at risk for the development of active TB. The yield of testing in some groups, particularly those aged ⩾65 years, was low, and investigation of alternative strategies should be considered.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate care cascades for programmatic active case finding and latent TB infection (LTBI) management in young child TB contacts (aged <5 years) in Victoria, Australia.DESIGN: This was a retrospective review of public health surveillance data to identify contacts of all pulmonary TB cases notified from 2016 to 2019.RESULTS: Contact tracing identified 574 young child contacts of 251 pulmonary TB cases. Active TB was found in 28 (4.9%) contacts, none of whom had previously received bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccination, and 529 were tested for TB infection using the tuberculin skin test (TST). The overall TST positivity was 15.3% (95% CI 0.1–0.2). Among the 574 children, 150 (26.1%) were close contacts of sputum smear-positive cases and 25 (16.7%) of these were not referred to TB clinics. Of the 125 referred, 81 were considered to have LTBI, 79 agreed to commence TB preventive treatment (TPT) and 71 (89.9%) completed TPT. Following completion of TPT, no child was subsequently diagnosed with active TB.CONCLUSION: There was a high yield from active case finding and uptake of TPT. Notable losses in the cascade of care occurred around referral to tertiary clinics, but high treatment completion rates and good outcomes were found in those prescribed treatment.

Mental health nurses aim to provide high-quality care that is safe and personcentred. Service users require individualized care, responsive to their preferences, needs, and values. The views of service users, mental health nurses, nurse academics, psychiatrists, and nurse managers about the core competencies of mental health nurses have not been explored. Our study aimed to describe and contrast the views of multiple stakeholder groups on the core competencies of mental health nurses. Concept mapping is a six-step mixed-methods study design that combines qualitative data with principal component analysis to produce a two-dimensional concept map. Forty-eight people participated in the study from five stakeholder groups that included service users and clinicians. The final concept map had eight clusters: assessment and management of risk; understanding recovery principles; person-and family-centred care; good communication skills; knowledge about mental disorders and treatment; evaluating research and promoting physical health; a sense of humour; and physical and psychological interventions. There were important differences in how service users and health professionals ranked the relative importance of the clusters. Service users reported the understanding recovery principles cluster as the most important, whilst health professionals ranked the assessment and management of risk group the most important. There may be a disconnect between what service users and other stakeholders perceive to be the core competencies of mental health nurses. There is a need for more research to examine the differing perspectives of service users and health professionals on the core competencies of mental health nurses.

lished an editorial outlining a number of initiatives promoting openness and transparency in mental health nursing science (Gray, 2018). One of these was the introduction of registered reports. The JPM was the first nursing journal to adopt this innovative approach to publishing research. Adopted by over 250 journals, registered reports emphasize the importance of the research question and the rigour of the proposed methodology because the protocol (part 1) is subject to peer review before data collection. As long as the authors comply with the registered methodology, the journal agrees to publish the results (part 2). Registered reports are intended to drive out questionable research practices that include selective reporting of results, and publication bias. It has been positive to see a number of mental health nurses engaging with registered reports and publishing part one of their research in JPM (Moyo et al., 2020). It is with dismay that we have recently been alerted to the fact that the JPM has decided to stop publishing registered reports (author guidelines checked 31st August 2020). The decision was seemingly made unilaterally by the editorial team and not discussed with the Journal editorial board. It seems to us that JPM is positioning itself in opposition to the values of the open science movement and this is extremely concerning to those of us working in mental health nursing as academics and clinicians. We hope the current editorial team will reconsider their decision.

This study aims to identify and contrast key stakeholder perspectives about the core competencies of mental health nurses. Mental health nurses provide much of the direct care and treatment to patients with mental disorders. The perspectives of users of mental health services, mental health nurses, mental health nurse clinical leaders, psychiatrists, and mental health nurse academics regarding the core competencies of a mental health nurse are informative to improve the quality of care given to patients. We will use concept mapping to compare and contrast the views of different stakeholder groups (n = 50, 10 per group) about the core competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) of mental health nurses. There are six stages in concept mapping: preparation, generation of statements, structuring of statements, representation of statements, interpretation of maps, and utilisation of maps. The Good Reporting of A Mixed Methods Study (GRAMMS) checklist will guide this study. The final output is a “concept map” that can be used and interpreted to understand core mental health nursing competencies. This study will provide insight into the perceived core competencies of mental health nurses from a variety of perspectives.

Accessible summary What is known on the subject? Nursing skill mix research has primarily focused on medical and surgical patients. The association between nursing skill mix and clinical outcomes for psychiatric inpatients has not been adequately explored. No systematic reviews have been reported that have examined the association between the ratio of mental health to registered nurses and patient outcomes. What this paper adds to existing knowledge? Our protocol sets out, in detail, the methods we intend to follow to ensure that this review is conducted and reported to the highest possible standards. What are the implications for practice? The review will summarize evidence about safe staffing in mental health inpatient units internationally. The review will inform health policy and planning of health services. Abstract AimTo assess the association between mental health nurse to comprehensive/general nurse ratio and relapse—determined by hospital admission—in adult psychiatric inpatients. Background informationThere is considerable variation in psychiatric inpatient nursing skill mix internationally. In most countries, wards are typically staffed by a mix of mental health and comprehensive/general nurses. To date, there have been no systematic reviews that have examined the association between the ratio of mental health to registered nurses and patient outcomes. MethodWe will systematically search five databases. Risk of bias will be determined using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool. A meta‐analysis will be undertaken if there are at least two similar studies. ResultsFor included studies, we will produce table summarizing risk of bias and extracted data. If we are able to undertake a meta‐analysis, this will be reported as a forest plot. DiscussionThis paper sets out a detailed plan for a systematic review of mental health nurse skill mix research. Implications for practiceHigh‐quality evidence about the association between nursing skill mix and patient outcomes is important to inform the planning of mental health services internationally.