Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Community Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing: Contexts and Challenges—The Case of Nurse Prescribing and Recovery-Focused Interventions

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
European Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing in the 21st Century

Part of the book series: Principles of Specialty Nursing ((PSN))

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of psychiatric/mental health (P/MH) nurses who work in community settings. The chapter retrospectively reviews the stated and implicit aims of mental health services and what has driven the changes that have taken place across Europe in the last 50 years, moving from a heavy reliance on institutionally based services to varying degrees of community-based care. The role of P/MH nurses within these changes is explored, using P/MH nursing in England as a ‘case study’, particularly the growth of the so-called ‘Advanced’ nurse prescribing role within England. Nurse prescribing has been adopted, to some extent and to a certain degree, some by countries across Europe. It is perceived by some as allowing P/MH nurses to practise with a more holistic, recovery and service user focus, conversely by others as replicating undesirable medically defined models of care. It is argued that all changes in mental health services are perceived through multiple perspectives, dependent on philosophy, profession and personal circumstance. The development of P/MH nurses as prescribers of medication is an example where different perspectives are starkly brought into focus. The emerging evidence is reviewed and tentative conclusions drawn.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bailey K, Hemingway S (2006) Psychiatric/mental health nurses as non-medical prescribers: validating their role in the prescribing process. In: Cutcliffe JR, Ward MW (eds) Key debates in psychiatric/mental health nursing. Elsevier, Edinburgh, pp 220–235

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker P, Buchanan-Barker P (2012) First, do no harm: confronting the myths of psychiatric drugs. Nurs Ethics 19:451

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bonney S, Stickley T (2008) Recovery and mental health: a review of the British literature. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 15(2):140–153

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd R (2013) Early diagnosis and access to treatment for dementia patients. Nurs Prescr 11(4):174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braslow JT (1995) Effect of therapeutic innovation on perception of disease and the doctor-patient relationship: a history of general paralysis of the insane and malaria fever therapy, 1910-1950. Am J Psychiatr 152(5):660–665

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bressington D, White J (2015) Recovery from psychosis: physical health, antipsychotic medication and the daily dilemmas for mental health nurses. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 22(7):549–557

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brimblecombe NR (2005) The changing relationship between mental health nurses and psychiatrists in the United Kingdom. J Adv Nurs 49(4):344–353

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Brimblecombe N (2009) New Ways of Working for nurses. J Ment Health Train Educ Pract 4(3):4–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brimblecombe N, Nolan P (eds) (2012) European mental health services described. Radcliffe, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown P (1981) The mental patients' rights movement and mental health institutional change. Int J Health Serv 11(4):523–540

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant-Lukosius D, DiCenso A, Browne G, Pinelli J (2004) Advanced practice nursing roles: development, implementation and evaluation. J Adv Nurs 48(5):519–529

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buchan J, Twigg D, Dussault G, Duffield C, Stone PW (2015) Policies to sustain the nursing workforce: an international perspective. Int Nurs Rev 62(2):162–170

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Care Quality Commission (2013) Community mental health survey 2013. http://www.cqc.org.uk/public/publications/surveys/community-mental-health-survey-2013. Accessed 11 May 2014

  • Chaston D, Seccombe J (2009) Mental health nurse prescribing in New Zealand and the United kingdom: comparing the pathways. Perspect Psychiatr Care 45:17–23

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health (1994) Working in partnership: a collaborative approach to care. Report of the Mental health review team. HMSO, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Health (2006) From values to action: the chief nursing officer’s review of mental health nursing. Department of Health, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobel-Ober D, Brimblecombe N (2016) National survey of nurse prescribing in mental health services; a follow up six years on. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 23:378

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dobel-Ober D, Brimblecombe N, Bradley E (2010) Nurse prescribing in mental health: national survey. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 17:487–493

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duxbury JA, Wright K, Bradley D, Barnes P (2010) Administration of medication in the acute mental health ward: perspective of nurses and patients. Int J Ment Health Nurs 19(1):53–61

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Earle EA, Taylor J, Peet M, Grant G (2011) Nurse prescribing in specialist mental health (part 1): the views and experiences of practising and non-practising nurse prescribers and service users. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 18(3):189–197

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Edward K, Welch A, Elsom S, Edward K, Munro I, Welch A (2014) Resilience, recovery, reconnection and therapeutic optimism. In: Mental health nursing. Dimensions of praxis. Oxford University Press, Melbourne

    Google Scholar 

  • Elsom S, Happell B, Manias E (2007) Exploring the expanded practice roles of community mental health nurses. Issues Ment Health Nurs 28(4):413–429

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fakhoury W, Priebe S (2002) The process of deinstitutionalization: an international overview. Curr Opin Psychiatry 15(2):187–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fisher SE, Vaughan-Cole B (2003) Similarities and differences in clients treated and in medications prescribed by APRNs and psychiatrists in a CMHC. Arch Psychiatr Nurs 17(3):101–107

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gale J, Marshall-Lucette S (2012) Community mental health nurses’ perspectives of recovery-oriented practice. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 19(4):348–353

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Godin P (1996) The development of community psychiatric nursing: a professional project? J Adv Nurs 23(5):925–934

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman E (1968) Asylums: essays on the social situation of mental patients and other inmates. AldineTransaction, New Brunswick

    Google Scholar 

  • Gournay K (1994) Redirecting the emphasis to severe mental illness. Nurs Times 90(25):40–41

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gumber R, Khoosal D, Gajebasia N (2012) Non-medical prescribing: audit, practice and views. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 19(6):475–481

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Happell B, Hoey W, Gaskin CJ (2012) Community mental health nurses, caseloads, and practices: a literature review. Int J Ment Health Nurs 21(2):131–137

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harris BA, Shattell MM (2012) A critical nursing perspective of pharmacological interventions for schizophrenia and the marginalization of person-centered alternatives. Issues Ment Health Nurs 33(2):127–129

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Haw C, Stubbs J, Dickens G (2015) Medicines management: an interview study of nurses at a secure psychiatric hospital. Journal of Advanced Nursing 71(2):281–294.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemingway S (2016) Mental health nurses’ medicines management role: a qualitative content analysis. Nurs Prescr 14(2):84–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemingway S, Ely V (2009) Prescribing by mental health nurses: the UK perspective. Perspect Psychiatr Care 45(1):24–35

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hemingway S, Flowers K (2000) Nurse prescribing in the field of community mental health nursing. Nurs Times 96(43):40–41

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hemingway S, Coxon G, Munday D, Ramsay M (2013) Austerity is bad for mental health: implications for mental health nurses. Ment Health Nurs 33(6):7–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Hemingway S, McCann T, Baxter H, Smith G, Burgess-Dawson R, Dewhirst K (2015) The perceptions of nurses towards barriers to the safe administration of medicines in mental health settings. Int J Nurs Pract 21(6):733–740

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hunter P (1974) Community psychiatric nursing in Britain: an historical review. Int J Nurs Stud 11(4):223–233

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jones M, Bennett J, Lucas B, Miller D, Gray R (2007) Mental health nurse supplementary prescribing: experiences of mental health nurses, psychiatrists and patients. J Adv Nurs 59(5):488–496

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Knapp M, Beecham J, McDaid D, Matosevic T, Smith M (2011) The economic consequences of deinstitutionalisation of mental health services: lessons from a systematic review of European experience. Health Soc Care Community 19(2):113–125

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koekkoek B, Van Meijel B, Schene A, Hutschemaekers G (2009) Community psychiatric nursing in the Netherlands: a survey of a thriving but threatened profession. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 16(9):822–828

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kroezen M, van Dijk L, Groenewegen PP, Francke AL (2011) Nurse prescribing of medicines in Western European and Anglo-Saxon countries: a systematic review of the literature. BMC health services research 11(1):127

    Google Scholar 

  • McBrien B (2015) Personal and professional challenges of nurse prescribing in Ireland. Br J Nurs 24:524–528

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McCann TV, Clark E (2008) Attitudes of patients towards mental health nurse prescribing of antipsychotic agents. Int J Nurs Pract 14(2):115–121

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McDaid D, Park A (2010) Economics and public mental health. In: Goldie I (ed) Public mental health: a handbook. Pavilion, Brighton

    Google Scholar 

  • Middleton H, Moncrieff J (2011) ‘They won't do any harm and might do some good’: time to think again on the use of antidepressants? Br J Gen Pract 61(582):47–49

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Moncrieff J, Cohen D, Porter S (2013) The psychoactive effects of psychiatric medication: the elephant in the room. J Psychoactive Drugs 45(5):409–415

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • National Prescribing Centre, the National Institute for Mental Health in England, and the Department of Health (2005). Improving mental health services by extending the role of nurses in prescribing and supplying medication. National Prescribing Centre, Liverpool

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman I, Ryrie I (2013) Mental health nursing: an art and a science. In: The art and science of mental health nursing: a textbook of principles and practice. McGraw-Hill Education (UK), London, pp 33–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman IJ, Coster S, McCrone P, Sibley A, Whittlesea C (2010) A comparison of the clinical effectiveness and costs of mental health nurse supplementary prescribing and independent medical prescribing: a post-test control group study. BMC Health Serv Res 10(1):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nursing and Midwifery Council (2006) Standards of proficiency for nurse and midwife prescribers. NMC, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen PB, Kolstad A (2009) De-institutionalisation and trans-institutionalisation-changing trends of inpatient care in Norwegian mental health institutions 1950-2007. Int J Ment Heal Syst 3(1):1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramcharan P, Hemingway S, Flowers K (2001) A client centred case for nurse supplementary prescribing. Ment Health Nurs 21(5):6–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Ross JD, Clarke A, Kettles A (2014) Mental health nurse prescribing: using a constructivist approach to investigate the nurse–patient relationship. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 21:1–10

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sakellari E, Pikouli K (2013) Assessing the impact of the financial crisis in mental health in Greece. Ment Health Nurs 33(6):19–21

    Google Scholar 

  • Santos JC, Cutcliffe J (2013) The recent global socioeconomic crisis and its effects on mental health in Portugal. Ment Health Nurs 33(6):33–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Shorter E (2006) The historical development of mental health services in Europe. In: Knapp M, McDaid D, Mossialos E (eds) Mental Health Policy and Practice across Europe. McGraw-Hill Education (UK), London, p 16

    Google Scholar 

  • Simpson A (2005) Community psychiatric nurses and the care co-ordinator role: squeezed to provide ‘limited nursing’. J Adv Nurs 52(6):689–699

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Snowden A (2010) Integrating medicines management into mental health nursing in UK. Arch Psychiatr Nurs 24(3):178–188

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wells J, Bergin M, Gooney M, Jones A (2009) Views on nurse prescribing: a survey of community mental health nurses in the Republic of Ireland. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 16(1):10–17

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Whittington D, McLaughlin C (2000) Finding time for patients: an exploration of nurses’ time allocation in an acute psychiatric setting. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 7(3):259–268

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK

    Steve Hemingway

  2. South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Neil Brimblecombe

Authors
  1. Steve Hemingway
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Neil Brimblecombe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Steve Hemingway .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, Nursing School of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    José Carlos Santos

  2. Cutcliffe Consulting, Kingston, Canada

    John R. Cutcliffe

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2018 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hemingway, S., Brimblecombe, N. (2018). Community Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing: Contexts and Challenges—The Case of Nurse Prescribing and Recovery-Focused Interventions. In: Santos, J., Cutcliffe, J. (eds) European Psychiatric/Mental Health Nursing in the 21st Century. Principles of Specialty Nursing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31772-4_14

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31772-4_14

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31771-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31772-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation