The New Zealand development and trial of mental health nursing clinical indicators—a bicultural study

• Published in: International journal of nursing studies Vol. 40; no. 8; pp. 853 - 861
• Main Authors: O’Brien, Anthony P, O’Brien, Anthony J, Hardy, Derrylea J, Morrison-Ngatai, Erina, Gaskin, Cadeyrn J, Boddy, Julie M, McNulty, Neil, Ryan, Tom, Skews, Georgina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2003; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Audits; Benchmarking; Bicultural clinical indicators; Biculturalism; Biological and medical sciences; Clinical Competence - standards; Clinical indicators; Delphi Technique; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Focus Groups; Guideline Adherence - standards; Health participants; Humans; Medical sciences; Mental health nursing; National standards; New Zealand; Nurse's Role; Nursing; Nursing Audit; Nursing Evaluation Research; Nursing Staff - education; Nursing Staff - psychology; Oceanic Ancestry Group - education; Oceanic Ancestry Group - psychology; Pilot Projects; Practice Guidelines as Topic; Professional practice questionnaire; Psychiatric nursing; Psychiatric Nursing - standards; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality audit; Quality Indicators, Health Care - standards; Standards of practice; Surveys and Questionnaires; Transcultural Nursing - standards; New Zealand; Oceania; Professional practice questionnaire; Bicultural clinical indicators; Mental health nursing; Standards of practice; Quality audit; Human; Questionnaire; Mental health; Audit; Quality assurance; Nursing; Professional practice; Professional evaluation; Public health; Nurse
• ISSN: 0020-7489; 1873-491X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0020-7489(03)00074-9

This paper describes the development and validation of bicultural clinical indicators that measure achievement of mental health nursing practice standards in New Zealand (ANZMCHN, 1995, Standards of practice for mental health nursing in New Zealand. ANZCMHN, Greenacres). A four-stage research design was utilised including focus groups, Delphi surveys, a pilot, and a national field study, with mental health nurses and consumers as participants. During the national field study, consumer files ( n=327) from 11 District Health Boards, and registered nurses ( n=422) completed an attitude questionnaire regarding the regularity of specific nursing and service activities. Results revealed a variation in the mean occurrence of the clinical indicators in consumer case notes of 18.5–89.9%. Five factors with good internal consistency, encompassing domains of mental health nursing required for best practice, were derived from analysis of the questionnaire. This study presents a research framework for developing culturally and clinically valid, reliable measures of clinical practice.