Zombies Wanted! Descriptions of Nurses in Psychiatric-Mental Health Care in Swedish Recruitment Advertisements.

Knowledge of how nurses are described in recruitment advertisements can aid assessment of the current status of professional psychiatric-mental health nursing and inform services dealing with the challenges of nurse recruitment. This study used content analysis to explore descriptions of nurses in psychiatric-mental health care in a purposive sample of 75 recruitment advertisements collected in Sweden in February 2019. The descriptions were interpreted as focussing on their being willing and able to function in discouraging practice environments, matching the ideal of psychiatric-mental health nursing poorly. The study suggested a need to align the ideals and realities of the nursing profession.