“Mental health nurses step into an area that most people step back from”
A UK nursing conference focusing on burnout and mind-management has provided two GCU students with a confidence boost ahead of the next steps in their career.
GCU’s Nursing Department gave Shannon O’Rourke and Robyn Downie the opportunity to travel to Sheffield for the Student Future Mental Health Nursing Conference in November last year.
The experience gave Shannon and Robyn the chance to meet other mental health nursing students and professionals from across the UK – something both students were particularly grateful for.
We spoke to Shannon to find out more about her experience, and also heard how the trip led to a written reflective piece being published by the British Medical Journal.
Opportunity
“I was on my break during placement and noticed an email come out about the chance to go down to Sheffield. I read that it was fully funded and obviously realised it was a great opportunity. I was really grateful that our travel and hotel was paid for because I don’t think I would have been able to facilitate that for myself.
“The course at GCU really sets you up well for your career with placement, but I just wanted a bit of extra experience. I think it’s important to try and step out of my comfort zone to help boost my confidence.
“It was nice that Robyn also decided to go for it - I definitely wasn’t going to say no to some company on the trip, especially since we had to take three trains to get there! We’ve been friends since first year so it was good to do something a bit different together.”
The Event
“The conference was held at Cutlers Hall which was a really impressive building. We went up these stairs and there was a big welcome table where we got our name badge and a tote bag with lots of goodies in it.
There was a range of topics covered and a variety of different speakers. It was really powerful to hear different viewpoints which I felt helped spark a lot of debate in the room. Even getting an insight into how other students across the UK complete their placement was really interesting to hear. Getting a degree is a really busy time and on placement you’re constantly working on being the best version of yourself, but I think it was really nice to step back and hear people highlight the role we’ve got. It acted as a reminder that this is why I’m completing my degree in mental health nursing.
Challenges
“Mental health nurses step into an area that most people step back from, and that comes with a lot of responsibility. You hear about ‘leaving things at the door’ but that can be hard because nurses are compassionate people. Resilience is hugely important, and a lot of what we spoke about focused on mind-management and simplifying neuroscience. None of us were experts on that, but it was important to help us understand the reactions of both our patients and ourselves.
“There was a lot of discussion around burnout and how to protect yourself from that. There was particular emphasis put on the importance of supervision, especially throughout the early days of your degree. I think a big thing I took away from this is that there’s always support available to you. It seems simple but it’s something that can easily be forgotten.”
Reflection
“There was a real sense of unity throughout the room during the event and I really felt like I connected with everyone.
“I’d been asked to write down some points about my experience by my lecturer Val Howatson, Deputy Head of the Nursing Department at GCU.
“I didn’t actually realise how much the experience had impacted me until I started taking the time to properly think about it all. I obviously knew at the time it was interesting but I think the process of writing points down actually made me think about my practice. I didn’t think the conference would actually touch me as deeply as that.
“Val, who’s been absolutely amazing with me, then sent the piece I wrote to another lecturer and he then got in touch with me to say it would be a really good blog piece for an academic journal he’s part of.
“I never expected to be doing anything like this and the whole process of putting it together was the perfect way to end such a positive experience.”