Experiences of pre-registration mental health nursing students who witness self-injury amongst service users during placement: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objectives: Little is known regarding the experience of pre-registration mental health nursing (MHN) students who have witnessed self-injury whilst on placement and the personal impact.
This small-scale study aimed to:
1. Identify the types of self-injury witnessed by MHN students
2. Evaluate MHN students’ perceived self-competence in working with service users who have self-injured
3. Appraise the access to support and types of support required by MHN students
4. Assess the potential trauma upon MHN students who have witnessed self-injury.

Design: A cross-sectional questionnaire was used to gather data, comprising of researcher-generated Likert-style items, a validated trauma scale, and open-ended response questions.

Methods: The questionnaire was distributed to MHN students via 4 participating universities. Of all participant responses, only 84 were considered fully completed and included in the final analysis. Descriptive analysis was completed on the quantitative data gathered, and a thematic analysis conducted on the qualitative data. Co-production was not used.

Results: Three themes emerged from analysis of open-ended responses:
1. Resilience on placement
2. Sources of stress
3. Sources of support.
It was found that MHN students need to be better prepared for likely witnessing of self-injury in practice, including how to respond compassionately, emotionally, and professionally during and after the event.

Conclusions: Despite being a small-scale piece of research, these novel findings indicate that a collaborative approach between universities and practice partners is needed to address issues identified. Failure to do so may result in increased attrition rates and the inadequate preparation of MHN students to work with people who self-injure.