Exploratory study of mental health consultation‐liaison nursing in Australia: Part 1 demographics and role characteristics

Abstract

Mental health nursing roles in Consultation-Liaison (CL) psychiatry and emergency departments are rapidly developing within Australia since the mainstreaming of mental health services within the general health-care system. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many of these positions have been initiated and developed in relative isolation and with little formalized support. Consequently, a comprehensive understanding of these roles and the nurses who occupy them is limited. A survey was developed and distributed to gather information on CL nurses in Australia. The survey was aimed at CL nurses working in a range of settings and included questions relating to demographics, qualifications, experience, clinical practice, organizational structure, education, clinical supervision, education and training and work satisfaction. This, the first of a two-part paper, will present the key findings relating to demographics and characteristics of the role. Overall, the findings demonstrated that the CL nurses who responded to the survey (n = 56) were experienced psychiatric/mental health nurses working primarily in general hospital wards and/or emergency departments; receive requests for consultation from a range of health professionals but predominantly nurses; provide education to a range of staff groups; and use a range of titles to identify their role.

Mental health education programmes for generalist health professionals: An integrative review

“…Other MHEP had a mix of a mental health nurse and a psychiatrist ( n = 2), a mental health nurse and a psychologist ( n = 1), a mental health nurse and a social worker ( n = 1) and one study had a mental health nurse, a psychiatrist, a psychologist and a social worker involved in the delivery of the training, with the remaining eight studies not stating who conducted the training. The leadership role of mental health liaison nurses in providing education and professional development of generalist health‐care professionals is supported within the literature (Sharrock et al . 2008).…”

Exploring the Views of Nurses on the Cardiometabolic Health Nurse in Mental Health Services in Australia

“…Potentially, lessons could be learned from previous developments and implementation of specialist nursing roles, for example consultation liaison nursing, where integration, primary health liaison and capacity building are inherent parts of the role (Brunero & Lamont, 2010;Sharrock, Bryant, McNamara, Forster, & Happell, 2008;Smith, 2003), therefore increasing, rather than reducing the collective responsibility for physical health care.…”

Liaison and Consultation Psychiatry

“…In these models, MHN play a leading role not only in caring for medically ill patients with psychiatric comorbidity, but also in providing a role model and peer-topeer training for medical staff (Burian et al, 2014;Sharrock et al, 2008). Usually, the majority of patients is referred by internal medicine departments, with a large percentage being older than 65 years of age.…”