Evaluating the effects of appointing an associate nurse consultant to a CAMHS team
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Evaluating the effects of appointing an associate nurse consultant to a CAMHS team

Kathryn Currah Associate Nurse Consultant, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service, Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust, North Durham, County Durham, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To remind yourself of the current scope of the nurse consultant role

  • To learn how an associate nurse consultant can fit into the mental health workforce

  • To understand some of the benefits and drawbacks of appointing an associate nurse consultant in a child and adolescent mental health service

Nurse consultants have an important role in strengthening the capacity and productivity of the workforce in child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). An associate nurse consultant (ANC) was appointed to a local CAMHS team in County Durham, primarily to support the medical staff. A service evaluation of the effects of the newly developed post on the team, particularly the medical staff, showed that it had reduced the medical staff’s workload.

The evaluation further showed that the ANC had enhanced the support available to nursing staff and that there may be scope for another similar role to provide better coverage of the locality and respond to all healthcare disciplines’ needs. A major benefit of the appointment of an ANC is that it has developed another route for nurse career progression, thereby providing a means of improving staff recruitment and retention.

Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2020.e1485

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

@kathryncurrah

Correspondence

kathryncurrah@nhs.net

Conflict of interest

The author attended numerous national conferences between 2007-2018 and presented on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and on nurse-led prescribing for Shire Pharmaceuticals and Flynn Pharma

Currah K (2020) Evaluating the effects of appointing an associate nurse consultant to a CAMHS team. Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2020.e1485

Accepted 30 April 2020

Published online: 22 September 2020

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