Valuing leaders in acute inpatient services
This project will support and strengthen acute inpatient nursing leadership that promotes seamless and responsive services between community and acute inpatient settings, enabling service users to lead their own recovery.
On this page:
About the project
This project has grown from the Leadership recommendation from the Ministry of Health's Mental Health Nursing and its Future: A Discussion Framework, 2006. There is a consistent message that by building and strengthening nursing leadership, we can enhance the quality of mental health services provided to service users.
For the 2008/09 period this project is comprised of two national nursing leadership workshops, and advice and support to design and implement initiatives in acute inpatient services. This work is closely linked to other nursing and Te Pou projects, such as Let's get real, Seclusion - time for change and Talking therapies.
National leadership workshops
We held two national workshops for nursing leaders in March 2009.
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12 March in Palmerston North for the North Island.
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17 March in Christchurch for the South Island.
These workshops followed on from the 2007/08 regional workshops. Nearly 70 nursing leaders and consumer advisors attended these two national workshops. Attendees came from the child and youth, adult and older person's acute inpatient settings. A registration process for each DHB was run via the director of mental health nursing.
What was on the workshop menu?
The workshops focused on the values and attitudes that underpin effective leadership. The workshops were developed in three parts:compromised of three themes:
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Dr.Robin Youngson, an anaesthetist, presented on the importance of compassion in healthcare and how this leads to better outcomes for the people we work with
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Carolyn Swanson,Te Pou service user workforce manager, developed and presented on a resilience plan for mental health nurses
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Formal discussion occurred on the work DHBs are doing to reduce restraint and seclusion.
Again there was an opportunity for attendees to further develop local, regional and national relationships and networks.
Advisory and support of initiatives
Te Pou has some capacity to offer acute advice, support and national expertise to nursing leaders through individual negotiation, in DHBs and NGOs. This would be for new initiatives, such as:
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development of leadership roles within DHB acute inpatient services and NGO acute alternatives
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nursing approaches
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service user partnership models
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evidence based best practice approaches
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whole-of-systems approach.
What we did in 2007/08
Regional leadership workshops
In the 2007/08 year we held five regional leadership workshops:
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one each for the northern, midlands and central regions
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one each for the top and bottom of the southern region.
A total of 180 nursing leaders and consumer advisors from all 21 DHBs attended.
The workshops aimed to inspire the energy and commitment required for nurse leaders to work towards change. There were presentations and discussions on why excellent leaders are pivotal to contributing to improved services and service user experiences and recovery, and some practical solutions to support good leadership.
Anne Garland - CBT Scholarships
Te Pou awarded a number of national scholarships for acute nurses to attend a one-day workshop as part of a number of initiatives designed to strengthen the nursing workforce and build capacity in psychological approaches and talking therapies.
On 20 February 2008, Auckland University Centre of Mental Health Research and the School of Nursing ran an acute inpatient nurses workshop, led by Anne Garland, an internationally renowned nurse consultant, scholar and clinical leader in the model of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).
More information
For more information, contact Anne McDonald, clinical lead - nursing.
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Page last updated: 29 October 2009