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New nursing approach is strengths-oriented
University of the Sunshine Coast Associate Professor of Nursing Margaret McAllister has produced a book which could help revolutionise nursing care across Australia.
The book – Solution Focused Nursing: Rethinking Practice, published by Palgrave Macmillan – challenges common assumptions about nursing care and urges nurses to look for solutions as well as problems.
It was officially launched at USC’s recent Mental Health Nursing Symposium, at which Associate Professor McAllister explained she was advocating a “strengths-oriented approach” of working with and for clients, rather than on them.
“Nursing is not just about the diagnosis of disease,” she said. “Our work is very much about motivating our clients to know they have the resources to adapt and recover. You convey the belief that they have the power to effect change.
“We’re like the translators of medical knowledge and we have a coordinator’s role in helping people recover.”
Associate Professor McAllister, whose background is in mental health nursing, wrote four of the book’s 14 chapters, which cover various forms of nursing, from children’s health through to aged care.
“It’s aimed at all nurses, undergraduates and postgraduates,” she said. “It is for all students and practitioners looking for an alternative perspective on care.
The book features strategies for nurses in getting to know their clients in order to better assist them in dealing with the medical problems they present with.
“We need to spend time searching for solutions, working with the clients and building up strengths to promote successful adaptation and recovery,” she said.
Sunshine Coast Health Service District Director of Nursing Services Graham Wilkinson, who is an Adjunct Associate Professor at USC, said the book provided clear examples of what modern-day nursing involved.
“It brings together contributions of very contemporary-thinking nurses exploring and explaining the range of skills they require to practise nursing,” he said.
“It was easy to read because of the nature of the content and how it was dispersed with practical nursing scenarios.”
Associate Professor McAllister is putting her theory into practice with a pilot program of solution-focused nursing involving 20 emergency nurses at both Nambour General Hospital and the Gold Coast Hospital.
“We are looking at how to work with people who may be presenting with problems but how to work with their strengths — with what’s going well for them — and make positive changes in their lives,” she said.
“The nurses say they love it. They really love learning about this approach because it’s giving them so many more skills to add to their tool kit when dealing with patients.
“If the pilot program is successful, I’ll try to convince Queensland Health to put this into all hospitals and health services.”
About 40 people attended the Mental Health Symposium at USC on April 13 at which keynote speaker, Council of Australian Governments mental health team manager Ivan Frkovic, spoke about national mental health policy directions.
Associate Professor McAllister said other guest speakers included Mental Health Council of Australia CEO John Mendoza, Professor Ted White and Australian College of Mental Health Nurses executive officer Kim Ryan.
USC now offers a Masters of Mental Health Nursing, a postgraduate program which prepares nurses to work in the specialty area of mental health.