A model of succession planning for mental health nurse practitioners

Succession Planning Leadership Model for Nurse Managers in Hospitals: A Narrative Review

The high number of nursing staff in Indonesia requires optimal management skills, one of which comes from the leadership domain. The succession planning program can be an option to prepare nurses who have leadership potential to carry out a management function. This study aims to identify the nurse succession planning model and its application in clinical practice. This study uses a narrative review of the literature approach. Article searches were carried out using electronic databases (PubMed and Science Direct). Researchers obtained 18 articles. Three main themes emerged: (1) the factors that influence the efficient implementation of succession planning, (2) the benefits of succession planning, and (3) the implementation of succession planning in clinical practice. Training and mentoring related to leadership, support from human resources, and adequate funding are the main factors in implementing effective succession planning. Succession planning also can help nurses find competent leaders. However, in its application in clinical practice, the process of recruitment and planning for nurse managers that occurs in the field is not optimal so that succession planning must exist and be integrated with organizational needs and provide guidance and assistance for the younger generation who will become leaders in the future.

Implementation of the Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Role in Forensic Settings: A Case Report

This is a case report about the implementation of the mental health nurse practitioner role in forensic psychiatric settings. We will present its implementation and issues encountered during this process, such as a lack of understanding of the role in staff teams, scope of practice limitations, tension stemming from the conflict between treatment and punishment approaches, and the risk of medicalization of nursing. This case report, based on the authors' experiences, represents an early contribution to research on advanced nursing practice in forensic psychiatry, an area that has yet to receive much attention in the literature.

Intentional Modelling: A Process for Clinical Leadership Development in Mental Health Nursing

Clinical leadership is becoming more relevant for nurses, as the positive impact that it can have on the quality of care and outcomes for consumers is better understood and more clearly articulated in the literature. As clinical leadership continues to become more relevant, the need to gain an understanding of how clinical leaders in nursing develop will become increasingly important. While the attributes associated with effective clinical leadership are recognized in current literature there remains a paucity of research on how clinical leaders develop these attributes. This study utilized a grounded theory methodology to generate new insights into the experiences of peer identified clinical leaders in mental health nursing and the process of developing clinical leadership skills. Participants in this study were nurses working in a mental health setting who were identified as clinical leaders by their peers as opposed to identifying them by their role or organizational position. A process of intentional modeling emerged as the substantive theory identified in this study. Intentional modeling was described by participants in this study as a process that enabled them to purposefully identify models that assisted them in developing the characteristics of effective clinical leaders as well as allowing them to model these characteristics to others. Reflection on practice is an important contributor to intentional modelling. Intentional modelling could be developed as a framework for promoting knowledge and skill development in the area of clinical leadership.

Postgraduate education in psychiatric nursing in Israel: closing the gap

Deinstitutionalization policies are being gradually implemented in Israel. Most recently, an insurance reform has been approved, in which mental health services will be included in the HMO's service package. As most Israeli mental health nurses are currently employed in institutional settings, the Ministry of Health's Nursing Division seeks to estimate their scope of employment in preparation for the anticipated changes. The aim of this study is to describe present-day professional practice characteristics of qualified psychiatric nurses and identify practice areas for which advanced training may be required. The research design is cross-sectional on a national level, including all state psychiatric hospitalization services. A countrywide sample of nurses with post-basic training in state psychiatric hospitals identified areas of practice in which further training may be required: psychotherapy intervention (60% of respondents); consultation for the elderly (60%); care prescriptions (64%); community drug treatment management (69%); and referral to professionals and community resources (56%). Nurses reported gaps in continued care and community rehabilitation activities. These findings have training implications in an era of increased focus on chronic mental illness in the community.

Nurse practitioner succession planning: forward thinking or just an after-thought?

This paper examines the concept of backfill and succession planning for an elite speciality nursing group, nurse practitioners. Nurse practitioners work in many public, private, inpatient and outpatient settings across the country. This discussion is relevant to all practicing nurse practitioners, but especially those with their own specific patient group. A nurse practitioner is an elite nursing specialist with specific speciality skills. While present, nurse practitioners can be most effective at holistically managing their patient group. However, if an endorsed nurse practitioner is no longer present, for a short or long interval, their specific skills and abilities cannot be easily substituted or replaced in the short term. This potential compromise in patient care can be detrimental to the developing reputation of the role of the nurse practitioner. In order to address the shortage of specifically skilled nurse practitioners across the country in all specialties, there is a need to forward plan and consider contingencies for succession in the event of short- or long-term absences from the clinical environment. Succession planning is the key to patient safety and the successful implementation of the role of the nurse practitioner. What is known about the topic? While succession planning itself is not a new concept, nurse practitioner role development for the most part has been about advancing innovative nurse-led models of care, as opposed to planning for future needs. What does the paper add? This paper aims to reignite the role development discussion to highlight the need for better alignment of succession planning with the establishment of nurse practitioner roles. What are the implications for the practitioner? Better alignment of succession planning and role development will ensure continuity of nurse practitioner models of care well beyond our pioneering nurse practitioners’ working life.

Evaluation of a student-run smoking cessation clinic for a medically underserved population

Background

Smoking is common among medically underserved populations. Accessible resources to encourage and support smoking cessation among these patients are limited. Volunteer medical student-run free smoking cessation clinics may provide an effective option to help these individuals achieve smoking abstinence. In order to demonstrate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of a student-run clinic, we analyzed a case series of patients receiving care in a medical student-run Smoking Cessation Clinic (SCC) at the Rochester, Minnesota Salvation Army Good Samaritan Health Clinic (GSHC).

Findings

Between January 2005 and March 2009, 282 cigarette smokers seeking care at the SCC were analyzed. Student providers at the SCC conducted 1652 weekly individual counseling sessions averaging 18 minutes per encounter. Patients were offered a choice of pharmacotherapies including nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion, and varenicline for up to 12 weeks. Smoking abstinence was confirmed with exhaled carbon monoxide (CO). Thirty-two patients completed the entire 12-week program (11.3%). At last contact, 94 patients (33.3%) abstained from smoking for ≥ 7 days and 39 patients (13.8%) were continuously abstinent for ≥ 4 weeks. The 7-day point prevalence abstinence rates at last contact were 58.6% for varenicline, 41.2% for bupropion, 33.9% for NRT, and 23.5% for bupropion and NRT. Analyzing missing patients as smoking, the 7-day point prevalence abstinence rates were 7.1%, 8.9%, and 8.2%, at 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months after program enrollment, respectively. No serious adverse drug reactions were recorded.

Conclusions

Our medical student-run smoking cessation clinic provided an effective and safe experience for medically underserved patients who might not otherwise have access to conventional smoking cessation programs because of high cost, lack of insurance, or other disparities. Similar medical student initiatives focusing on healthy lifestyles may be feasible and beneficial for individuals with limited access to healthcare resources.