Mental health nurse morale good

The morale of mental health nurses in acute psychiatric wards is good, contrary to popular belief, researchers have said.

Over 1,500 nurses and HCAs from NHS mental health trusts in England were questioned about levels of exhaustion, the quality of the relationships they had with patients and feelings of personal accomplishment.

Morale on psychiatric wards was good and significantly better than averages for health and social care professionals.

This runs contrary to most reports on acute inpatient psychiatric wards published in the last decade, which stated that morale in the settings was low, said the authors from London's City University.

Len Bowers, who led the research, said: 'The mismatch between the common belief that morale is low among mental health nurses in psychiatric nursing and the research findings is intriguing. It suggests that policy and opinion are disconnected from the real state of affairs on the ward.

'Given that morale is good, the reasons for high nurse vacancy rates on acute psychiatric wards are likely
to be due to pay, grading, numbers of nurses being trained and low remuneration for shift-working patterns,' Professor Bowers added.

The research, published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, also found that verbal abuse from patients tended to have a more damaging effect on staff morale than physical abuse.

The authors conclude that clear policies on verbal abuse, high levels of order and organisation, rotating staff and training were key to increasing morale and avoiding burnout.

Ian Hulatt, RCN mental health policy adviser, said that mental health acute trust providers needed to 'seriously reflect'
on the findings of the survey.

US research found this year that nurses often viewed mental health colleagues more negatively than others (NT News, 12 February, p2).