TY - JOUR
T1 - 'Your experiences were your tools’
T2 - How personal experience of mental health problems informs mental health nursing practice.
AU - Oates, J.
AU - Drey, N.
AU - Jones, J.
PY - 2017/9
Y1 - 2017/9
N2 - Introduction: ‘Expertise by experience’ is a highly valued element of service delivery in recovery-oriented mental health care, but is unacknowledged within the mental health nursing literature. Aim: To explore the extent and influence of mental health professionals’ personal experience of mental ill health on clinical practice. Method: Twenty seven mental health nurses with their own personal experience of mental ill health were interviewed about how their personal experience informed their mental health nursing practice, as part of a sequential mixed methods study. Results: The influence of personal experience in nursing work was threefold: first, through overt disclosure; second, through the ‘use of the self as a tool’; third, through the formation of professional nursing identity. Discussion: Mental health nurses’ experience of mental illness was contextualised by other life ex-periences and by particular therapeutic relationships and clinical settings. In previous empirical stud-ies nurses have cited personal experience of mental illness as a motivator and an aspect of their identity. In this study there was also an association between personal experience and enhanced nursing expertise.Implications for practice: If drawing on personal experience is commonplace, then we must address the taboo of disclosure and debate the extent to which personal and professional boundaries are negotiated during clinical encounters.
AB - Introduction: ‘Expertise by experience’ is a highly valued element of service delivery in recovery-oriented mental health care, but is unacknowledged within the mental health nursing literature. Aim: To explore the extent and influence of mental health professionals’ personal experience of mental ill health on clinical practice. Method: Twenty seven mental health nurses with their own personal experience of mental ill health were interviewed about how their personal experience informed their mental health nursing practice, as part of a sequential mixed methods study. Results: The influence of personal experience in nursing work was threefold: first, through overt disclosure; second, through the ‘use of the self as a tool’; third, through the formation of professional nursing identity. Discussion: Mental health nurses’ experience of mental illness was contextualised by other life ex-periences and by particular therapeutic relationships and clinical settings. In previous empirical stud-ies nurses have cited personal experience of mental illness as a motivator and an aspect of their identity. In this study there was also an association between personal experience and enhanced nursing expertise.Implications for practice: If drawing on personal experience is commonplace, then we must address the taboo of disclosure and debate the extent to which personal and professional boundaries are negotiated during clinical encounters.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85017585557&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jpm.12376
DO - 10.1111/jpm.12376
M3 - Article
SN - 1351-0126
VL - 24
SP - 471
EP - 479
JO - Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
JF - Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing
IS - 7
ER -