Investigating professional quality of life in nursing staff working in adolescent psychiatric intensive care units (PICUs)

Foster, C

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate professional quality of life of mental health nursing staff working within an Adolescent PICU setting. Professional quality of life is important, as there is a correlation between staff wellbeing and the quality of healthcare services delivered, particularly within mental health settings. Mental health nursing staff in Adolescent PICU services deal with a wide range of physically and emotionally demanding challenges when providing care, yet the potential impact of this demanding work upon staff in this context has not been explored.
Design: The study used a longitudinal non-experimental design with a purposive sample. Quantitative data was collected from a total of seventeen registered mental health nurses and health care assistants working in an Adolescent PICU Unit in the North of England. Repeated measures were administered at three consecutive intervals, three months apart, using a validated self-report measure, the Professional Quality of Life Scale V (ProQOL V, Stamm, 2010). Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using benchmark data from the ProQoL V instrument for comparison.
Findings: Analysis of results compared to ProQol V benchmark data showed significantly higher than expected levels of compassion satisfaction, and lower than expected levels of burnout and secondary traumatic stress for Adolescent PICU nursing staff within the study. There were no significant differences between qualified nurses and health care assistants. Potential explanations and practice implications of these findings are discussed.
Value: This is the first published study to investigate professional quality of life within the mental health nursing population working in Adolescent PICU, providing empirical insights into a previously unexplored mental health context.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 15, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Dec 6, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 6, 2018
• Deposit Date: Nov 19, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 13, 2018
• Journal: The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice
• Print ISSN: 1755-6228
• Electronic ISSN: 2042-8707
• Publisher: Emerald
• Volume: 14
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 59-71
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-04-2018-0023
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1108/JMHTEP-04-2018-0023
• Related Public URLs: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/journal/jmhtep