Interwoven histories: Mental health nurses with experience of mental illness, qualitative findings from a mixed methods study

Abstract

The effects of mental health nurses' own experience of mental illness or being a carer have rarely been researched beyond the workplace setting. This study aimed to explore how the experience of mental illness affects mental health nurses' lives outside of and inside work. A sample of 26 mental health nurses with personal experience of mental illness took part in semistructured interviews. Data were analysed thematically using a six-phase approach. The analysis revealed the broad context of nurses' experiences of mental illness according to three interwoven themes: mental illness as part of family life; experience of accessing services; and life interwoven with mental illness. Participants typically described personal and familial experience of mental illness across their life course, with multiple causes and consequences. The findings suggest that nurses' lives outside of work should be taken into account when considering the impact of their personal experience of mental illness. Similarly being a nurse influences how mental illness is experienced. Treatment of nurses with mental illness should account for their nursing expertise whilst recognizing that the context for nurses' mental illness could be much broader than the effect of workplace stress.

Mental health nurses’ encounters with occupational health services

“…Whilst a range of experience were described, with some MHNs describing excellent organisational responses to their mental health needs, the common thread was the way that MHNs critically appraised their experience of OH services based on their expertise in mental health work. This was similar to their critical appraisal of their experiences as patients and carers, as previously reported 12,13 .…”

“…In this paper we focus on the OH theme because of its particular interest to OH clinicians. Findings on the impact of participants' experiences of mental health problems on their clinical work have been presented in previous publications 12,13 .…”

“…• Negotiating the return to work *findings from other themes and subthemes have been presented in other journal publications 12,13…”

News reporting of suicide in nurses: A content analysis study

“…On the other hand, occupational stress and cognitive availability of suicide methods within mental health nurses is already likely to be high due to workplace exposure. This might be in addition to previous or current exposure to suicidal behaviour in their personal lives as some mental health nurses may choose to enter the profession due to experiencing or knowing someone experiencing mental illness (Oates et al 2018). Exposure to suicide is associated with suicide risk in the general population (e.g., Hill et al, 2020), and multiple exposure from personal, workplace and media-related sources may contribute to increased risk.…”

Occupational health in mental health services: a qualitative study

“…A mismatch between service attendees’ perspectives and OH professional perspectives (not necessarily to their detriment) was found in a previous survey study. Where there has been recent qualitative research on doctors’ experiences of being patients (Brooks et al , 2017; Riley et al , 2018) and mental health nurses’ experience of being mental health service users (Oates, Drey and Jones, 2018) there has been no qualitative appreciation of the OH practitioner perspective on their work in mental health services. In the absence of prior investigations, an exploratory qualitative study was warranted.…”