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An enormous amount of change has occurred in the last six years for the mental health system in England and the workforce within it. We have seen the 10‐year National Service Framework for Mental Health (Department of Health, 1999) gradually make its impact felt in the form, in particular, of new community mental health teams and structures for delivering care in the community. We have also, most recently, experienced the passing of the Mental Health Act 2007 (HM Government, 2007), after many turbulent years of controversy and argument, extending to nurses and non‐medical practitioners who have been given statutory powers to act as approved mental health practitioners and approved clinicians.Alongside these important developments has been a gradual revolution in traditional ways of working, in the form of the New Ways of Working initiative. This article considers the impact of New Ways of Working on mental health nursing ‐ the single largest professional group within the mental health workforce ‐ and the continuing implications for the profession. The development of nurse prescribing is used as an illustration of the challenges and opportunities that have commonly arisen when new roles and skill sets have been introduced in mental health settings.

Adolescent mental health issues are on the increase, in particular depression, which is now a major public health concern globally. Mental health education is important and young people’s awareness of mental health is potentially limited. This is one factor that creates barriers to seeking support. School nurses and educational professionals recognise that they do not necessarily have the required skill base to support emotional health concerns with young people. The purpose of this paper is to synthesise qualitative evidence related to the nurse’s role in supporting adolescents.

A literature review using a systematic approach was undertaken, predominantly through collection of primary qualitative research studies. In total, 22 published studies are included in this review, extracted from four databases – CINAHL, Embase, Medline and Scopus.

This review shows that awareness of mental health is needed early in adolescence, while at school, to encourage young people to access support and have knowledge of their own emotional health. The need for further mental health education and provision is asserted.

Young people benefit from someone who is accessible and familiar to them in schools so that they can access emotional support as and when needed. Careful involvement of families (including extended families) is noted. It is proposed that this role should be a mental health nurse role, who should be accessible within the school environment.

This paper is original and adds to existing knowledge that mental health challenges are increasing, and more needs to be done in schools to promote mental health and reduce the stigma associated with seeking support.

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.

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.

The said shift prioritises physical health intervention, skills, procedures and tasks over the uniqueness of mental health nursing.

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.

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.

As well as working with people who have serious mental health problems, mental health nurses have to maintain a values-based approach to their interactions with mental health service users. However, some have suggested that students and newly qualified nurses are unprepared for this role. The purpose of this paper is to explore perceptions of practising mental health nurses, third year mental health nurse students and lecturers about how well students are being prepared for practice.

A two-phase phenomenological study within a mental health nurse training institution and with staff from a Mental Health Trust in England. The study collected questionnaire responses from 87 participants (42 third year mental health nurse students, 39 practising mental health nurses and six nurse lecturers). A Likert scale questionnaire with written feedback produced data that formed the schedule for ten subsequent focus groups with 41 participants from the above categories. Focus group data were analysed using a process of interpretive phenomenological analysis. This led to the development of three main study themes. The transition from student to registered nurse is difficult, the importance of learning from experience, violence and aggression is difficult to manage, working effectively with victims of sexual abuse or those who have a diagnosis of personality disorder is difficult.

Whilst the study found some evidence to suggest the development of positive values there is a perception that newly qualified mental health nurses lack confidence in other important areas. Participants also expressed doubt about whether it was possible to prepare someone for practice completely. Another finding was that the relationship between student and the mentor is critical to the quality of practice learning.

Study limitations are that this is a small selection of participants from one particular area. The researcher attempted to ensure that this study has internal validity. However, it is possible to question the extent to which findings may apply to other areas. Therefore, this study may be most useful to others as a basis for the discussion and comparison of these issues within mental health nurse educators.

The need to encourage proactive learning approaches in students is emphasised. Universities should facilitate the sharing of clinical learning experiences as well as developing realistic training in the management of violence and aggression. It is possible to question how well nurses are prepared to work with the physical health needs of service users.

This paper gives information about mental health nurse preparation for practice, which will be of value to training organisations as well as to employers of newly qualified mental health nursing staff.

The experiences of clinical facilitators working within non-conventional mental health settings have not yet been explored. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of clinical facilitators when facilitating nursing student learning within a non-conventional mental health clinical placement.

This study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach. The participants in this study were five registered nurses who had facilitated students at a non-conventional mental health clinical placement called Recovery Camp. Individual in-depth interviews were conducted.

The facilitators experiences could be understood through two main themes: facilitator skills and opportunities for student learning. Recovery Camp allowed the facilitators to build on their own nursing and facilitation skills, while examining themselves as a mental health nurse. “Being with” students (immersive engagement) enabled opportunistic and rare learning moments.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first known study to explore the experiences of clinical facilitators working in a non-conventional mental health placement.

Observations have been made that mental health students receive very little support following observing patients displaying suicidal behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a small‐scale empirical study to investigate this issue further.

The approach used in this study is phenomenological. Qualitative data were obtained through semi‐structured interviews consisting of a range of questions asking mental health student nurses about their experiences of support in practice. The data are analysed using thematic analysis.

As well as issues relating to the support of mental health student nurses in practice, there are many ethical issues raised in this paper. These include student responsibilities while in placement areas; students as having a supernumerary status; and the inclusion of students in supervision and debriefing sessions following traumatic incidents.

This small‐scale exploratory study was conducted with a small number of students in one University. However, the study provides a strong starting point for further research on the support students receive during their mental health nurse training.

This paper makes some recommendations on ways to improve the support of students in practice, including maintaining and supporting the role of Practice Experience Managers who spend a considerable amount of time in placement areas interacting with students and feeding back relevant practice concerns to University staff.

The aim of this study was to explore empirical literature on the experiences of pre-registration student nurses during mental health clinical placements and identify factors that enhance practice learning.

An integrative mixed-methods approach and constant comparative synthesis were chosen. Eligible studies were from 2009 onwards sampling student experiences of mental health placements within undergraduate and postgraduate degree entry to practice nursing programmes, excluding academic-only experiences. The search was last conducted on 14th August 2021 and included MEDLINE, CINAHL and APA PsycINFO databases.

The search strategy identified 579 studies, of which 10 met the eligibility criteria. Seven of the articles reported qualitative research; two were based on quantitative studies, and one had a mixed-methods design. There was international representation across six countries. All studies examined the experiences of pre-registration student nurses during mental health clinical placements. The total number of participants was 447, comprised of students, nongovernmental organisations and community members.

The review identified four influential themes that enhance practice learning: immersion in the nursing role; relationships that empower autonomous learning; opportunity for defined and subtle skill development; and student experiences of people with mental health needs. Further research is required on culture, subtle skill development and the socialisation process of students with the mental health nurse professional identity.

There is an ongoing debate about how specialist psychiatric services for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems should be developed. Nursing personnel are the largest professional group involved with care provision, yet to date there has been little research addressing the knowledge and experiences of learning disability and mental health nurses co‐working with this population. This aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of these nurses, using qualitative methods. The findings are discussed in relation to A Vision for Change (DoHC, 2006) and in comparison with the innovative collaborative working that has occurred with the UK.

This study sought to address one of the most critical issues that mental health professionals endure in modern health care, namely stress at work. Though it has been discussed for some time in the literature relating to mental health services, it still remains one of the biggest impediments to the provision of high quality care. In this study, two groups of mental health nurses were compared: forensic and acute mental health nurses. Stress levels were ascertained using a standardised assessment tool, the Mental Health Professional Stress Scale (MHPSS). Though both groups reported high levels of stress, no significant differences were found between them. Though both groups perceived certain aspects of their work as being stressful, each group identified different causes for stress within their respective work environments. This paper discusses some of the implications of these findings and highlights the importance of protecting staff from unpropitious work environments and burn‐out.

In view of the importance currently attached to evidence‐based health care, we present a systematic review of publications about the effectiveness of community mental health nursing interventions. Only 11 studies were identified which used an experimental design, focused solely on the nursing intervention, and were conducted in the UK since 1965. Not only is the evidence limited, but it does not examine those areas of work in which most community mental health nurses are involved, and the methodological rigour of the identified studies can be questioned. Other types of research with the potential to inform community mental health nursing practice are suggested. Research into the outcome of community mental health nursing interventions has made disappointing progress over the past decade.