KEY POINTS:
University of Auckland/Auckland District Health Board (ADHB)
Phone 09 630 9900 or 0800 733 968
recruit@adhb.govt.nz
www.aucklandhealthcareers/adhb
Pre-requisites: Nursing degree, current New Zealand practising certificate and NZ residency or citizenship. Been working in mental health for less than six months.
Places available: 16 this year, 19 in 2008.
Intakes: Beginning of each year
Costs: Free.
Earning while learning
Starting salary: $40,000 plus 17.5 per cent penal rates = $47,000.
Nurses who are interested in gaining the specialty skills required for mental health nursing can do so through the Post Graduate Certificate in Health Sciences (Mental Health Nursing) delivered by the University of Auckland in partnership with the ADHB.
Most applicants are new graduates but other nurses with an interest in mental health can also apply.
The participants are employed as full time staff nurses and provided with four placements in mental health settings; each for three months.
They also attend classes once a fortnight at University of Auckland where they study towards their postgraduate certificate. This academic course includes mental health policy, critical thinking and analysis, ethical and legal issues, and recovery principles. There are also skills training sessions and case study presentations. The study days conclude with clinical group supervision.
At the end of the year the nurses are assessed on essays, a professional portfolio and seminar presentations. They must also pass four assessments of their competency.
A number of DHBs run mental health new graduate programmes. However the places on offer are limited by the number of experienced staff available to oversee the new graduates. This year the ADHB had 50 nurses applying for the 16 mental health places available.
THE GRADUATE
Claire Sun
22
Registered nurse - mental health new graduate
I realised my passion was with mental health nursing after a clinical placement in mental health as a student. I liked the feeling that I was making a difference. The experience really motivated me.
The challenge is to engage with people with all kinds of mental health issues and help them to recovery.
I'm now in the mental health new graduate programme doing my third of four placements. My first was at Buchanan inpatient rehabilitation unit, my second at Manaaki House community services and this placement I'm at Te Whetu Tawera, an acute mental health unit at Auckland Hospital. Through these different settings I'm learning a lot about the diversity of service users and about managing people in a variety of situations.
I am employed full time, working 80 hours over a fortnight with one study day off. The study is paid for which is great.
I'm under the guidance of preceptor - a trained senior nurse - who oversees what I'm doing and that I'm providing safe, effective care.
The programme allows us to work in a clinical situation and experience and observe senior staff dealing with situations, which is a great way for us to learn and find our own approach.
During a shift I look after four or five service users. This could involve helping them maintain their physical health, doing nursing assessments and diagnosis or simply talking to them.
Communication is the key. As a nurse you have to establish a good trusting professional relationship with the service user at the start.
They're not going to open up to me if they don't trust me.
I find mental health a very supportive environment. Mental health nurses are really good at picking up on people's feelings and moods and they support each other amazingly. We also have clinical supervision every fortnight with a very experienced nurse and support from other new graduates and lecturers and coordinator.
Doing study on top of placements pulls our learning together well.
THE EMPLOYER
Darren McLean
Auckland District Health Board Recruitment Consultant/Graduate Programmes
We offer the new graduate nurse programme to help support the transition of tertiary graduates into professional clinical practice.
Nurses graduate with a degree and are registered with the Nursing Council of New Zealand.
The new graduate programme helps nurses further develop specialised nursing knowledge to work in areas such as mental health. Claire, who is very passionate about mental health, wanted to acquire those specialty skills.
We look for people who can think critically and make decisions based on evidence-based practice. Mental health nurses need to be good at reading people, and to have high a degree of interpersonal capabilities. At times they're required to intervene in very specialised ways, such as de-escalation. We feel the post-graduate certificate and new graduate programme furthers these skills and abilities in new graduates.
A good graduate programme has also been shown to help retention rates by making employees feel supported in their professional development.
The benefits to the employers are that we are ensuring graduates build their level of competency and are safe and clinically competent practitioners.