[Implementation, difficulty, knowledge and skill in occupational mental health services of novice occupational health...

This study aimed to clarify the characteristics of implementation, difficulty, knowledge, and skills in mental health services of novice occupational health nurses (OHNs) in order to obtain ideas for education programs and learning methods for them.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among OHN members of the Japan Society for Occupational Health. We focused on the responses from novice OHNs who had no more than 5 years' experience in the occupational health field. Cluster analysis was conducted on 36 items of mental health activities in order to classify them into categories. The Novice OHNs' characteristics of implementation status, difficulties, knowledge and skills were analyzed and compared with those of proficient OHNs using the chi-squared test and the Mann-Whitney U test. The relations among the variables were also examined using the data of the Novice OHNs.

We obtained responses from 80 Novice OHNs, which formed the basis of the analysis, and responses from 369 proficient OHNs, which were used for comparison. Most of the novice OHNs were engaged in mental health services. The novice OHNs experienced greater difficulties with consultations and follow-ups of individual mental health problems than the proficient OHNs. Many novice OHNs felt they lacked knowledge and skills about mental health activities. We found that the knowledge and skills of the novice OHNs about building mutual trust with workers and supervisors and obtaining information from them were almost at the same level as those of other activities, however the activity was implemented at a significantly higher rate than the other activities. Therefore, it is essential for novice OHNs to learn how to build mutual trust with workers and supervisors and to acquire information from them. The novice OHNs who had supervisors such as OHNs of other enterprises and who read magazines as references for the services did not experience great difficulty with 'support for return to work and collaborations with persons involved inside or outside the company' compared with the OHNs who did not. The novice OHNs who had conducted research and given presentations at conferences experienced little difficulty with "individual consultations on difficult cases" compared with the OHNs who had not.