Work engagement, psychological empowerment and relational coordination in long-term care: A mixed-method examination of nurses' perceptions and experiences.

Nurse engagement, empowerment and strong relationships among staff, residents and families, are essential to attract and retain a suitably qualified and skilled nursing workforce for safe, quality care. There is, however, limited research that explores engagement, empowerment and relational coordination in long-term care (LTC). Nurses from an older persons' mental health and dementia LTC unit in Australia participated in this study. Forty-one nurses completed a survey measuring psychological empowerment, work engagement and relational coordination. Twenty-nine nurses participated in individual interviews to further explore these concepts. Although nurses reported high psychological empowerment and work engagement, their relationships with key stakeholders varied. Our findings suggest that nurses in LTC require both supports and opportunities to contribute as active members of the multiprofessional care team that includes tailored education, professional development and positive interactions within the care team. Regular support is needed to enable nurses to feel empowered, foster relationships and communication, and facilitate work engagement. Based on these findings, we suggest that it is important to find ways to ensure that all who provide care perceive that they are part of the whole care team and able to contribute to the care and well-being of people in LTC.

Developing work readiness in graduate nurses undertaking transition to practice programs: An integrative review.

OBJECTIVE: Investigate the strategies used to support graduate transition-to-practice, and how they align with the four domains of work readiness: work competence; personal work characteristics; organisational acumen; and social intelligence. DESIGN: Integrative review with narrative synthesis. DATA SOURCES: Databases searched in 2019 included Medline, CINAHL, PsychINFO, Embase via EBSCO, ERIC and MIDIRS. Grey literature was obtained through Proquest Dissertations and Thesis Global, and Trove. REVIEW METHODS: The 5-step method included: 1) Independent title and abstract review; 2) discussion of conflicting findings after title and abstract review; 3) independent full text review; 4) discussion of conflicting findings after full text review; and 5) quality evaluation using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool. Twenty eligible studies were analyzed and synthesized using the framework method informed by four domains of Graduate Work Readiness. RESULTS: Of the 24 strategies identified, most (n = 20) supported graduate development across two or more work readiness domains. Structured education (n = 14) and preceptorship (n = 13) were most often used, and findings related to development of graduate work competence (n = 17) were most often measured. All four domains of work readiness were seldom addressed, with social intelligence a common gap. CONCLUSIONS: This review provides two important considerations for graduate nurse programs. First, a combination of strategies is required to address all four domains of work readiness. Second, there is a need to tailor strategies, and their implementation, to the context of the organisation and clinical workplace.

Assessing mental health literacy of primary health care workers in Kenya: a cross-sectional survey.

AIM: To assess mental health literacy of health workers in primary health care services in Kenya. BACKGROUND: Mental illness is common in Kenya, yet there are fewer than 500 specialist mental health workers to serve Kenya's population of over 50 million. The World Health Organization recommends the integration of mental health care into primary health care services to improve access to and equity of this care, especially in low and middle-income countries. An important step to integrating mental health care into primary health care services is to determine mental health literacy levels of the primary health care workforce. METHOD: A cross-sectional survey using Jorm's Mental Health Literacy Instrument (adapted for the Kenyan context) was administered to 310 primary health care workers in four counties of Kenya. RESULTS: Of the 310 questionnaires distributed, 212 (68.3%) were returned. Of the respondents, 13% had a formal mental health qualification, while only 8.7% had received relevant continuing professional development in the five years preceding the survey. Just over one third (35.6%) of primary health care workers could correctly identify depression, with even fewer recognising schizophrenia (15.7%). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides preliminary information about mental health literacy among primary health care workers in Kenya. The majority of respondents had low mental health literacy as indicated by their inability to identify common mental disorders. While identifying gaps in primary health care workers' mental health knowledge, these data highlight opportunities for capacity building that can enhance mental health care in Kenya and similar low and middle-income countries.