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Structural competency in mental health nursing: Understanding and applying key concepts
Roberta Waite1, Dena Hassouneh1
1Drexel University, United States of America.
Archives of Psychiatric Nursing
|February 17, 2021
Summary
Mental health nursing must address societal structures hindering optimal mental health for all. Promoting structural competency is key to achieving mental health equity in nursing education, practice, and systems.
Area of Science:
- Nursing
- Mental Health
- Public Health
- Social Sciences
Background:
- Achieving mental health equity necessitates addressing systemic barriers impacting individuals and populations.
- Nursing has a critical role in dismantling these structures to promote optimal mental health outcomes.
- Calls for structural change highlight the need for new approaches within the nursing field.
Purpose of the Study:
- To promote structural competency within mental health nursing.
- To apply the concept of structural competency to the unique context of mental health nursing.
- To provide recommendations for integrating structural competency across nursing education, practice, and systems.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and conceptual analysis of structural competency.
- Exploration of key concepts: structure, social determinants of mental health, equity, structural justice, and historical understanding.
- Application of structural competency principles to mental health nursing at educational, practice, and system levels.
Main Results:
- Structural competency requires understanding how social, economic, and political factors influence mental health.
- Key concepts provide a framework for analyzing and addressing structural impediments to mental health equity.
- Integration of structural competency can transform mental health nursing interventions and policies.
Conclusions:
- Structural competency is essential for mental health nurses to effectively address health inequities.
- Recommendations are provided for advancing structural competency in nursing education, practice, and policy.
- A structural competency approach can enhance the capacity of nursing to achieve mental health equity.
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