NURSE RECOVERY ORIENTATED PRACTICE IN MENTAL HEALTH CARE

Nurse Recovery Orientated Practice in Mental Health Care



Nurse Recovery Orientated Practice in Mental Health Care

Introduction

The focus of this paper was to modify a measure of recovery practice for mental health nurses in Britain and explore nurses' self reports of recovery practices in Britain. Findings support the soundness of the Recovery Self Assessment-Registered Nurse Version (RSA-RN) as a self-assessment instrument designed to evaluate recovery-oriented nursing practice. More favorable perceptions of recovery practices were noted amongst older and more experienced nurses in Britain, those who had previous formal training or education in mental health recovery or psychiatric rehabilitation, and those who considered their facilities to be recovery-oriented. The RSA-RN can be use to identify nurses' and nursing departments' strengths in the provision of recovery-oriented interventions and lead to focused performance improvement in Britain.

Analysis

The recovery process is characterized by the interaction of a set of individual, environmental and organizational conditions common to different people suffering with a mental health problem. The fact that most of the studies have been working with schizophrenic patients we cannot extend what has been learned about the process of recovery to other types of mental problem. In the meantime, the prevalence of anxiety, affective and borderline personality disorders continues to increase, imposing a significant socioeconomic burden on the Canadian healthcare system and on the patients, their family and significant other. The aim of this study is to put forward a theoretical model of the recovery process for people with mental health problem schizophrenic, affective, anxiety and borderline personality disorders, family members and a significant care provider (Woolbridge 2004). In the field of mental health there is growing acceptance of recovery as a framework for the care and treatment of persons who suffer with serious mental illness (SMI). The final report from the President's New Freedom Commission supports recovery as a foundation to transform the mental health system. Recovery is the process in which people are able to live, work, learn, and participate fully in their communities. For some individuals, recovery implies the ability to live a fulfilling and productive life despite a disability. For others, recovery implies the reduction or complete remission of symptoms (Watkins 2007).

Over the past few decades, much has been written about recovery and rehabilitation. Yet it has been difficult for researchers to quantify recovery and identify specific practices or interventions that support recovery. Specific to mental health nursing practice, there is a paucity of recovery research. In the late 1990s, under the description of psychosocial rehabilitation, many authors cited the importance of incorporating recovery principles into mental health nursing practice. Since then, several nurses in Britain have developed theories or models that include recovery components or concepts, and others have conducted qualitative studies regarding patients' perceptions of recovery and nurses' in Britain changing roles as a patient progresses through the recovery process (histlethwaite J. & Ridgway G. 2006). However, there has been little empirical work in the psychiatric-mental health nursing literature examining recovery-oriented nursing ...