Mary Chambers
Kingston University and St George's, University of London, UK
Keynote: J Healthc Commun
Current political and health care climates emphasize quality care standards and clinical outcomes indicating the importance of using standardized measurement tools. To contribute to these agenda it is important for Registered Mental Health Nurses (RMHNs) to demonstrate their impact suggesting the need for a nursing metric. Fundamental to mental health nursing and Service User (SU) recovery is Therapeutic Engagement (TE) but difficulty exists when attempting to measure it. Arguments abound for and against measuring TE not only in mental health nursing but generally in health care. Such debates are not new and have existed from the time of Thorndike and Einstein; the former stated ΓΆΒ?Β?If anything exists, it exists in some amount; if it exists in some amount, it can be measured and the latter not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts. Notwithstanding the TE measurement debate, it is imperative to have a metric that to demonstrates the value of mental health nursing and its contribution to SU recovery. Rating scales measuring TE do exist, but none assess TE in acute care settings to include both the general therapeutic environment and 1:1 interactions between SUs and RMHNs. Neither has any been developed in partnership with SUs, nor developed to determine the impact of TE on the quality of SU experience/ recovery as perceived by them and RMHNs. To fill these gaps and also address the question what is the contribution of mental health nursing to service user recovery, a Therapeutic Engagement Questionnaire (TEQ) was developed. Using psychometric principles a 20 item questionnaire was developed with 2 versions: One for SUs and one for RMHNs. This paper explores political and professional considerations surrounding the debate for developing and utilizing a psychometrically sound tool to produce a mental health nursing metric. The development methodology and authentication process will be described with supporting data, together with how it is being adopted in research and practice locally, nationally and internationally.
Mary is Professor of Mental Health Nursing and Director of the Centre for Public Engagement, Faculty of Health, Social Care and Education, Kingston University and St George's, University of London.
Throughout her career she has held a number of clinical, managerial and academic positions including coordinator of the Northern Ireland Centre for Health Informatics. She is involved in a number of research projects locally and internationally. She is a fellow of both the Royal Society of Medicine and the European Academy of Nurse Scientists, and an expert panel member of HORATIO, the European Association for Psychiatric Nurses, and a member of the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Mary has a well-established record of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in education and research dating back to the 1980s. Outcomes of her work with respect to PPI in both these areas have had impact nationally and internationally. Integral to this work has been the co-production and delivery of education programmes, as well as PPI at all stages of the research process. PPI is one of her key research interests.
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