Opinion

Comment

Illustration showing two nursing team members in uniform standing pointing at a huge shift roster, as if discussing filling or swapping shifts

Unsocial shifts and rotas: what’s your breaking point?

Nurses are flexible but there has to be give and take if the NHS is to boost retention

Free
An illustration showing a person’s movements being picked up by a motion sensor

While technologies can benefit patient safety, we need service user and nurse input

With a surge in technology use in mental health, the pros and cons should be assessed

A nurse stands in front of a line of other nurses, looking happy and confident. Yet nurses often downplay their role

Our professional inferiority complex: why you’re never ‘just’ a nurse

Safety-critical care is what we do, yet some of us can’t resist the urge to downplay

Car park pay machine and pay-and-display signs in a hospital car park – hospital nurses face charges and fines for parking at work

Hospital car parking: who exactly is making a profit from all those charges and fines?

Using staff as cash cows if they drive to work shows how far goodwill has fallen in the NHS

Cruel curbs on migrant care workers’ lives are at odds with British values

Rules to stop overseas staff bringing family are also risky for the care sector and NHS

Do autism health passports actually help nurses and patients in practice?

Two autistic researchers look at the pros and cons of health passports

Expert advice

A nurse in scrubs sits while taking a break, looking tired and fanning her face with her eyes closed as she struggles with symptoms of menopause during a shift

Menopause: what reasonable adjustments can I expect at work?

Most nurses will experience menopause and new guidance says employers have a duty to help

Nurse reads a vital signs monitor at patient’s bedside. This is key information when assessing level of risk for a person with sepsis

Sepsis guidance update: how do I need to change my practice?

Nurse specialist explains the importance of more targeted antibiotic use

Ramadan and how to keep energy levels up in clinical practice during a month of fasting

Tips on the best ways to minimise hunger and thirst, while making time to pray on shift

Illustration of a nurse looking down and demotivated, holding a mask showing a brave face, which she is putting on her own face

How to give your best to patients when you’re lacking motivation

Finding ways to boost morale and reaching out to peers can help you get back on track

An illustration of a chess board with healthcare workers represented as chess pieces. One nurse is being picked up and moved to a different square by a big hand, representing management

Redeployment: what to expect if you are asked to work in another clinical area

How and when staff may be moved, and what makes them feel supported in unfamiliar roles

IV paracetamol shortage: what you need to know

Advice on alternative routes of paracetamol administration and other pain-relieving drugs

Editorial

What is the role of a nursing associate in mental health?

Acceptance of the role is driven by the reality of nursing shortages

Looking back to the future of the mental health nursing profession

Neil Brimblecombe reflects on how practitioners’ roles have evolved over the years

2021 RCN Nursing Awards: search for the best innovations in mental health nursing is on

Entries are open for this year’s mental health nursing category of the RCN Nursing Awards. Be in it to win it

Have your say on Mental Health Act reforms

Nurses can contribute to the white paper consultation on replacing the Mental Health Act 1983

COVID-19: will you as a mental health nurse get vaccinated?

You may decide not to have the vaccine, but there are questions you should ask yourself first

Clarion call for more mental health nurses to enter the research leadership programme

Only nine practitioners applied for the first programme in 2019

Your views

Illustration showing healthcare staff in different uniforms, representing different professions, standing on top of piles of coins of varying heights, suggesting pay differences between professions

NHS pay: would a separate pay spine benefit nurses?

We ask our readers if a split from Agenda for Change is the best approach

Illustration of nurse sitting on the floor, leaning against a near-empty battery – a metaphor for burnout in nursing

Your mental well-being: why should struggling in your job be seen as a sign of weakness?

As nurses, we often put ourselves last, yet still ‘resilience’ is a stick to beat us with

A year on from NHS industrial action, what has changed for nurses?

After the hard-won pay deal, we ask our readers’ panel how they feel about the dispute now

Dreaded form-filling: would standardisation across all settings make your job easier?

Universal patient documentation and its potential to ease your admin burden

Patient confidentiality and sharing patient data in your work WhatsApp group

What safeguards do you need to help you use instant messaging responsibly?

Why does it feel like pay for care home and independent sector nurses is overlooked?

Are non-NHS staff under-estimated by the public and even their nursing colleagues?

Reviews

Recovery in Mental Health Nursing

The blurb on the back cover says this book is for nurses and other professionals in mental health practice, but the contents are clearly directed towards nursing students

Out of the Woods: A journey through depression and anxiety

Brent Williams provides a compelling insight into the experience of depression told mainly through pictures

Book review: Treating Body and Soul – A clinicians’ guide to supporting the physical,...

Little is added to the debate on spirituality and care by the outdated ideas in this book

Edinburgh Fringe review

Lesley Warner reviews plays with mental health themes at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Book review: Introducing Mental Health: A Practical Guide (Second edition)

Self-employed nursing advisor David Harding-Price reviews Introducing Mental Health: A Practical Guide by Caroline Kinsella and Connor Kinsella

Book review: Proper People: Early Asylum Life in the Words of Those Who Were There (...

Visiting teaching fellow Liam Clarke reviews Proper People: Early Asylum Life in the Worlds of Those Who were There by David Scrimgeour

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