The experiences of a group of pre-registration mental health nursing students

Research that only utilises mental health students as a sample group is quite rare. Yet there are many potential stressors that may impact on the experience of these students including; the theory-practice gap, the learning culture experienced in clinical practice, the effects of the programme's assessment and learning strategies and the intentional and unintentional effects of the curriculum. Therefore the aim of this study was to explore the experiences of a group of mental health student nurses by utilising these four concepts as a framework. Focus groups were used to generate data and the sample consisted of fourteen mental health branch students who, within the pre-registration nursing programme, formed a problem-based learning group. The group met on an annual basis at key junctures during the three-year diploma programme. The focus groups were tape-recorded and the data interpreted and organised by utilising an adapted form of content analysis. Three themes were identified; the conflicting pressures of life as a mental health student nurse, adjustment to problem based learning and experiences in mental health practice and views on mentorship. A discussion of the implications of the findings for the planning of nursing curricula and mental health branch programmes is outlined.