Rural Lifestyles, Community Well-Being and Social Change: Lessons from Country Australia for Global Citizens by Angela T. Ragusa

Author:Angela T. Ragusa [Ragusa, Angela T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781608058020
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Bentham Science Publishers
Published: 2014-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Workplace Culture and Expectations

The poor collegial recognition and support among and between various allied health professionals documented in earlier research findings derived from the data provide a context for the in-depth analysis offered in this chapter. Devaluation of mental health nursing as a profession, perceived abandonment by government funding bodies, workplace bullying and condescending comments received from psychiatrists and managers all contributed towards low workplace morale, high workplace stress and professional isolation while rural workloads remained high, training limited and the recruitment of new staff problematic as rural mental health nursing was perceived an unattractive career choice (Crowther & Ragusa, 2011).

Lack of communication of workplace expectations exacerbated the chasm existing between psychiatrists and mental health nurses. Recounting an incident where a nurse was reprimanded by a psychiatrist for writing the wrong word in a patient’s records disclosed more than simply preferential differences. Power inequality between nurses and psychiatrists resulted in many nurses having to guess doctors’ preferences, without adequate communication occurring beforehand between staff:

It depends on the psychiatrist on how they want things written and you really need to be with these specified psychiatrist’s to know what their in thing is and what you are expected to do. I know possibly down there we will write something that we think is how we see it, but, ‘how dare you. You should have used some other word’, because this is how they want us to use it, but if they don’t tell us, there is no communication. (1, FG2)

Such experiences are commonplace with many nurses feeling ill prepared to do their job “properly”:

Mental health is you get here, you dope them, you do your work, you go along with it, you don’t say anything. It is damn hard to find somebody to have the time to teach you to know how to do something properly. If you don’t do your job properly, they don’t want you anyway at the end. There really isn’t anyone there to teach you today. I remember when I first arrived here. (7, FG2)

Rural mental health nursing was described as operating under a pragmatic workplace culture. Although many desired additional training and education, few participants engaged in such activity. Lack of education, in addition to lack of communication, presented many rural mental health nurses from feeling well prepared for their workplace demands:

Staff on the floor had our backs to the wall because quite often, because there was no real leadership in that area. There was no real opportunities presented on a regular basis. There was no real coordination. I’m not saying that has improved a huge amount…I’m not sure whether staff, because of that lack of leadership were encouraged to participate in educational programs…We’ve actually not got the culture…the facility hasn’t really encouraged nursing staff in the past to actually go and do a masters degree or go and do a PhD (1, FG1)

Lack of individual desire by nurses to take the necessary initiatives for professional advancement was seen as underpinning a pragmatic workplace culture. The nurses

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