The Psychiatric Nurse's Role in Application of Recovery and Decision-Making Models to Integrate Health Behaviors in the Recovery Process

Abstract

Recovery from mental illness is a process that involves personal decision-making in many areas. Nurses are in a unique position to assist individuals in assessing their personal health status and integrating health behaviors into their recovery plans. The use of assessment tools, motivational interviewing techniques, and recovery planning can help individuals make decisions about their health, try out new behaviors, and integrate healthy living behaviors into a recovery plan and activities. This role of the nurse in this process is outlined, strategies are described, and outcome examples are provided.

Nursing documentation in inpatient psychiatry: The relevance of nurse–patient interactions in progress notes—A focus group study with mental health staff

“…A central aim of person‐centred and recovery‐oriented care is to enable patient participation (Andvig & Biong, ; Camann, ), but there are a number of obstacles to realising that aim. One obstacle may be the current documentation model.…”

Mental health nurses’ views of recovery within an acute setting

“…; Stickley & Wright ; Welsch Jensen & Wadkins ). Such education and knowledge can contribute to empowerment of consumers to participate more fully in their own treatment plans, goal setting, and preparedness for any future crisis (Camann ; Happell ; Shepherd et al . ).…”

“…According to recovery principles, employees take up roles of guide or coach, more as partners in work-inprogress than experts (Barker & Buchanan-Barker 2011a,b;Happell 2008a;Shepherd et al 2008;Stickley & Wright 2011b;Welsch Jensen & Wadkins 2007). Such education and knowledge can contribute to empowerment of consumers to participate more fully in their own treatment plans, goal setting, and preparedness for any future crisis (Camann 2010;Happell 2008a;Shepherd et al 2008). Woodbridge and Fulford (2004) outline many of the essential shared capabilities for mental health professionals which overlap with recovery practices.…”

A Recovery-Oriented Approach for an Acute Psychiatric Ward: Is It Feasible and How Does It Affect Staff Satisfaction?

“…The recovery-oriented approach of mental health services stands for a change in roles, values and attitudes on the part of health professionals: from an expert-role to a supporting and accompanying partnership; from a paternalistic, rather deficit-orientated attitude towards a psychiatric service where structures and professional attitudes are transparent, health-orientated, and clientautonomy enhancing [3,4]. A patient-oriented treatment offers transparent forms of communication, for example accordant decision-making-models [5], and the fostering of an optimistic, hopeful and supportive attitude [6]. The consideration of the users' perspective in the context of structures and processes is an important element of the concept of recovery [7,8], which in the context of mental illness therefore accounts not only for the attitude of professionals, but also for the treatment structures of health services [4,9].…”