Participation within the fifth Student Conference of Future Mental Health Nurses 2023

Shannon O’Rourke, third^R&D 1 yr, Bachelor of Science in Nursing (Mental Health)

As a mental health nursing student, it is often good to satisfy other student nurses, and what higher way than to attend the Student Future Mental Health Nursing Conference in Sheffield (@FutureMHN_Conf). Fortunately, Glasgow Caledonian University funded my and one other student nurse’s participation. This annual event took place on November 3^R&D 2023 brings together students studying mental health nursing from across the UK. The event is a student-led conference featuring speakers from quite a lot of disciplines, similar to clinical practitioners, academics and mental health service users.

Event topics included: mentoring, mental management skills, clinical supervision, compassion in nursing, and therapeutic dialogues with service users. The predominant topic was the prevention of burnout, which may be very topical. Throughout the day there have been breaks and opportunities to network with like-minded peers and NHS organizations to debate employment opportunities.

I feel like I’ve learned so much about mental health nursing, and greater than that, I feel like this chance has allowed me to take into consideration what style of nurse I would like to develop into. I learned get probably the most out of tutoring and why developing my nursing skills is so necessary. A preceptorship position provides newly qualified doctors with additional support as they start their journey as a registered nurse. It has allowed me to reflect on the interviews that may happen in the approaching months, to have the option to ask potential employers what support is obtainable, in addition to interview suggestions. I would like to find out about development paths and it could never occur to me to make use of the interview as a time to sell yourself for the position, but additionally allow potential employers to indicate why they’re price working with. Listening to the lecture entitled “Chimpanzee, computer and human”, I used to be capable of think more deeply about my reactions. from a mind management speaker. Simplified visual representation to assist users understand their reactions. My “chimp” is my reactive form, my fight or flight response, and I can react with my chimpanzee, or I can react with my human, more logical a part of the brain. I used to be capable of gain some useful knowledge to reflect on my reactions and I consider that this modification in pondering can increase the resilience that is crucial in nursing.

I hadn’t paid much attention to clinical supervision, but after the conference I could see its true value in stopping burnout by enabling staff to lift issues in a confidential and secure environment and cope with challenges. Coping with emotional challenges inside mental health nursing helps develop knowledge and thus empowers individuals by constructing self-esteem. Overall, knowing that I can perform higher for this reason, which suggests I can provide my best, has a positive impact on the standard of care patients receive. Nurses working in forensic settings described the environment as emotional, traumatic, intense and stressful and located clinical supervision helpful¹. Although evidence highlights how necessary clinical supervision has been as a cornerstone of support for nurses, there are still persistent barriers to implementing it within the workplace². A difficulty that raises concerns for people like me who’re about to qualify.

I used to be wondering during a job interview at university once I was asked what the six C’s I believed were a very powerful, despite the fact that they’re all equally necessary. I selected compassion since it was my driving force to enter this profession path. There was a quote on the conference: “compassion is who we’re as individuals and the way we reply to the suffering of other people. “Suffering” is a term I’m undecided about, nevertheless it’s a strong word and it got me pondering. There is restricted research examining how nursing students learn compassion³ and the way I try to indicate compassion to all patients and folks I meet. Compassion is crucial in nursing.

The last conversation was very thought-provoking from someone who’s an authority in the sphere of experiences and who got here to debate therapeutic relationships. He emphasized compassion and understanding that everybody’s recovery is different. It was necessary for me to listen to this; I feel people in nursing can set an unrealistic goal of attempting to make everyone 100% higher – almost a must “fix” people. There may be room in nursing for a broader discussion of this topic, ranging from the primary day of study. Because everyone’s recovery is different, we’d like to set goals that fit an individual’s individual recovery path. Once I heard from someone who was a patient that nurses can seem to be robots, I spotted how we’d like to humanize ourselves in order that we are able to construct a stronger therapeutic relationship with the people we take care of. If a patient reacts in a “chimp” way, it is crucial that we don’t mirror that response, but as an alternative our “human” has to react. This conversation encouraged discussion, and although there have been no specific answers, I feel that everybody within the room, including myself, was pondering and reflecting on our practice. This talk highlighted how burnout can negatively impact patients and the way we will help work with patients by striving for the least restrictive practice possible and advocating for patients.

I might recommend other students to attend this event in the long run as I consider it was very helpful to my learning. Overall, I feel at the present time left me with more questions than answers, which is thing! I consider that certainly one of the ways to achieve success as a nurse is to continuously query things, what we are able to improve and what we are able to do in another way. I’m left with questions on how I can develop into the perfect doctor I could be to offer patients with the perfect care possible. One speaker said, “Mental health nurses step into spaces that others step back from” – this quote will stick with me for a very long time.

Bibliography

1. Newman, C., Eason, M. and Kinghorn, G. (2023) ‘Forensic mental health nurses’ experiences of clinical supervision’, Journal of Forensic Nursing19 section 1, pp. 12-20.
2. Masamha, R., Alfred, L., Harris, R., Basset, S., Burden, S. and Gilmore, A. (2022) ‘Barriers to overcoming barriers’: a scoping review covering 30 years of clinical surveillance literature’, Journal of Advanced Nursing78(9), pp. 2678-2692.
3. Durkin, M., Gurbutt, R. and Carson, J. (2018) ‘Quality, teaching and measurement of compassion in nursing: a scientific review’ Nurse education today, 63 section 4, pp. 50-58. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.01.025

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