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Abstract
Background: Developing recovery-oriented services, and ensuring genuine consumer participation in all aspects of services are central components of contemporary Australian mental health policy. However, attitudes of mental health professionals present a significant barrier. Given the positive impact of education on health professionals’ attitudes, particularly when consumers are involved, further exploration of consumer involvement in education is required.
Aims: To enhance understanding of the role consumers can play within mental health nursing education.
Method: A qualitative exploratory project was undertaken involving individual interviews with mental health nurse academics and consumer educators.
Results: Two main themes emerged from nurse participants: Recovery in action, consumer educators were able to demonstrate and describe their own recovery journey; and not representative, some participants believed consumer educators did not necessary reflect views and opinions of consumers more broadly. Two main themes for consumers were: the truth about recovery, consumer educators demonstrated recovery as an achievable goal; and not a real consumer, where health professionals to dismiss the consumer experience as unrepresentative and therefore not credible.
Conclusions: Consumer participation can contribute positively to nurse education, however representativeness presents a major barrier, potentially enabling nurses to dismiss experiences of consumer academics and educators as exceptional rather than typical.
Acknowledgements
The authors extend their sincere thanks to the participants who took the time to participate in these interviews and share their thoughts and opinions.
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.