Critical Appraisal of a Research Paper on Clinical Leadership in Mental Health Nursing

Running head: CRITICAL APPRAISAL
Critical Appraisal of a Research Paper
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Selected Paper:
Ennis, G., Happell, B., & Reid‐Searl, K. (2015). Clinical leadership in mental health
nursing: The importance of a calm and confident approach. Perspectives in Psychiatric
Care, 51(1), 57-62.
Introduction, identification and significance of the topic
The purpose of the study is discovering the opinions of nurses working in healthcare
concerned with public mental health. The emphasis is put on analysing the significance of
implementing a confident and calm approach for dealing with people experiencing mental
health problems. The study has the scope of exploring the importance of a suitable approach
toward treating mental health service users. The outcome of the survey can act as an
important source of an informant for future researcher want to study the area further. Nurses
can be suggested to adopt a confident and peaceful approach for working efficiently in the
mental health department based on the result. A literature review can provide a better
understanding of the research topic. For gathering better information interviews are carried
out with registered nurses and qualitative method is applied along with grounded theory.
Literature review
As commented by Ennis, Happell & Reid‐Searl (2015), nursing is a challenging and
stressful job. It is one of those few professions offering reasonable care 24*7 hours. The
authors in the starting of the literature review have said that nurses tend to perform their
definite duties hours for dealing with unexpected or unplanned situations. Here, they have
talked about nursing environments, which is related to the research topic of mental health.
The nursing settings are unpredictable as it includes the intensive care units, severe
mental health site and emergency departments (Berry, Waite, Dear, Capon & Murray 2018).
All these areas demand nurses having professional skills within their specialised nursing area

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and being confident while making decisions. When it comes to a crisis or emergency state in
mental health, they need the expertise of working with calmness (Ruiz, Esparza and Hamlin,
2013). In the words of Hagen, Knizek & Hjelmeland (2017), nurses involve in mental health
care must have the ability to regulate their emotional expressions and emotions and maintain
a balance between their engagement and distance to offer useful attention to the patients.
They play a critical role in ensuring excellent service is provided to the care users and
therefore, require adequate formal support (Moxham, McCann, Usher, Farrell & Crookes,
2011). The mental health nurses or MHNs can promote care of mental health patients by
applying a person-centred approach (Caplan, 2013). They must recognise the uniqueness of
every patient’s need by developing a cooperative nurse-patient connection and reflecting on
treatment interferences (Ennis et al. 2015). In this context, Tofthagen, Talseth & Fagerström
(2014) opined that the interventions for medical practice are that nurses can improve the
recovery process of patients by providing them substitute activities and working
cooperatively for enhancing their personal life knowledge and strength. Aston & Coffey
(2012) stated that usually, they apply various strategies and methods for promoting the
wellbeing of self-harm service users.
In emergencies, the approach toward mental health patients is that vital that, if done
with readiness, quality and safety, it can decide these people’s approval and devotion to
treatment (Ennis et al. 2015). Nurses must show a calm attitude while listening to the needs
of individuals, showing respect to their individuality and providing them with sufficient care
and answers for solving their problems (Videbeck, 2010). The authors of the present article
mentioned in this regard that in a mental health setting, the issues, which challenge MHNs
most often, are acute psychotic symptoms, behavioural disturbance and self-harm, which can
eventually result in aggression.

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Clinical leadership is developing as a critical feature for the nurse. It highlights the
significance of offering evidence-based individualised care to the patients. It can improve
results for patients and improved staff retention (Swanwick & McKimm, 2017). Efficient
clinical leaders can attract new nurses by enhancing their quality of placement and thus, can
facilitate a progressive atmosphere for everyone (Bartlett & Hollins, 2018).
Methodology
In this study, the qualitative method is used that is grounded theory. The technique
mainly focuses on producing a practical theory or description of an action or interaction by
looking at the course through the opinions and involvements of the chosen members
(Silverman, 2016). Grounded refers to the method of a continuous reasonable review of the
data collected, its coding and classification. It enables every evolving theory to be chastised
within the data (Sbaraini, Carter, Evans & Blinkhorn, 2011). Therefore, the grounded theory
method is selected for gathering information on clinical direction in mental health and the
prominence of using a unruffled and assertive approach for treating mental health patients
from the nurses. Further, the available theories in the area can be grounded for better
understanding.
The study involves selecting participants from the registered nurses, who work in the
inpatient unit, community teams, mental health triage service and dedicated crisis. The
researcher ensured that the nurses have been working for at least 12 months with mental
health patients. Interviewing them gave a good insight pertains to the necessary
characteristics of efficient clinical leaders. As stated by Mackey & Gass (2015), interviews
are helpful in accumulating detailed information on perceptions, opinions and personal
feelings of the interviewees. In interviews, answers of more detailed questions can be
obtained. Kumar (2019) commented that people could express their view elaborately in a