e-Professionalism in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: A Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

This study systematically examines the challenges and issues of digital professionalism in Psychiatric Mental Health (PMH) nursing over the past decade, addressing the lack of recent research in this area.

Conducted as a systematic review, it analyzed a subset of 12 studies focusing on e-professionalism in PMH nursing. The search was performed in April 2023 across databases including Medline, EMBASE, PsycInfo, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, and Cochrane, covering papers published between January 2013 and April 2023. The quality of the primary papers was evaluated using the Kmet standard criteria, and a narrative synthesis approach was used to summarize the findings.

The results reveal that e-professionalism issues in PMH nursing, particularly in legal and ethical dimensions, have received little attention in recent studies. The study identified two competing scenarios in mental telehealth nursing, emphasizing the need to find a balance between them for successful implementation.

The findings highlight the importance of psychiatric mental health nurses developing a comprehensive understanding of e-mental health interventions, including knowledge, skills, affective factors, ethics, and regulatory considerations. The study concludes by calling for greater focus on digital professionalism in PMH nursing to address the evolving challenges in the field.