Building Our Rural Mental Health Workforce: A Role for Enrolled Nurse Participation
Greater Southern Area Health Service
Abstract
This paper describes the creative use of Enrolled Nurses (ENs) in a community mental health setting.
The mental health workforce suffers from chronic staff shortages, particularly in rural areas. Southern Tablelands Mental Health Service (STMHS) recognised this as a quality and service delivery issue and established a new approach to health professional organization and management.
Community mental health has not traditionally employed ENs. ENs do however bring a skill set and experience that is well suited to a community based service. Given the shortage of other mental health professionals, the employment of ENs to carry out a specific role within the team enabled a more flexible approach to existing workloads.
This project was entered in the 2007 NSW Health Awards, Building a Sustainable Health Workforce category.
The full entry document can be downloaded in the formats listed below:
Building Our Rural Mental Health Workforce (Word - 31 KB)
Building Our Rural Mental Health Workforce (pdf - 23 KB)
Download the Presentation ( pdf - 203 KB) from the 2007 NSW Health Expo
Contact
Communications and Publications Coordinator, Development Unit
Greater Southern Area Health Service
Phone: 02 6933 9184
