Nursing children and young people: what mental health training is required?

AIM: The aim of this research was to investigate the views of children and young people's nurses on the mental health training they had received and what recommendations they would make for future staff training.

METHOD: Nine such nurses who had experience of nursing young people following self-harm or a suicide attempt were recruited. Data were collected using individual 45-minute semi-structured interviews and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.

RESULTS: The findings of this study indicate that children and young people's nurses may benefit from some empathy and attitudes-based training. Participants clearly indicated that they do not feel that they have adequate expertise in mental health nursing. Participants requested training on a variety of mental health topics.

CONCLUSION: The results indicate that children and young people's nurses feel that their current mental health training is inadequate. Individualised training packages for different work areas could be delivered collaboratively by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and specialist children and young people's nurses, using face-to-face teaching methods.