[Competence and work identity--an evaluation of Norwegian continuing education in psychiatric nursing]

Mental health services are in transition. The question is to what extent professional training programmes within the health and social sectors have taken into consideration claims and expectations on professionals following this organizational transition. The purpose of this descriptive study was, by means of a semi-structured questionnaire, to evaluate Norwegian postgraduate programmes of psychiatric nursing with respect to what extent they had met the psychiatric nurses' need for competence in their clinical work. Only few evaluations of this type are reported from Scandinavia, and, consequently, it is important to conduct such studies to elucidate strengths and weaknesses in existing programmes. In all 154 psychiatric nurses participated (response rate 48%). The study revealed that psychiatric nurses perceived their training as significant to their practice--and that their professional identity and competence had been strengthened. This was connected to the possibility of studying their own professional field in depth--and to clarify their field of responsibility. Thus, the respondents regarded an alteration of the postgraduate programme in an interdisciplinary direction as unfortunate. Such an alteration might contribute to a weakening of their specific competence and professional perspective. The respondents held that productive interdisciplinary co-operation presupposes a multi-disciplinary approach. The postgraduate programmes seem definitely to qualify psychiatric nurses for working in psychiatric institutions, but their training is also relevant for working in the community health services.