Comprehensive approach to continuing professional development of registered and enrolled nurses at a psychiatric rehabilitation centre

Abstract

The study sought to gain an in-depth understanding of the knowledge and skills regarding rehabilitation of mental health care users of nurses who work at a psychiatric rehabilitation centre, in order to design a continuing professional development plan for registered and enrolled nurses. The researcher used a qualitative, exploratory descriptive design to explore the knowledge and skills of nurses who practise in a psychiatric rehabilitation centre dealing with the rehabilitation of mental health care users. Four themes emerged from the data that were collected from four focus groups: knowledge of the rehabilitation process; the need for continuing professional development; nursing skills required for the implementation of psychiatric rehabilitation and means of communication within psychiatric rehabilitation. The researcher devised a continuing professional development plan, including topics on the management of the mentally ill, the problems associated with mental illness and rehabilitation appropriate to the mental illness.