Aims/Objectives: The global healthcare landscape is experiencing a dire shortage of nurses, with no exceptions occurring within mental health nursing recruitment and retention. Addressing these challenges requires a robust understanding of the factors contributing to nursing attrition. Research shows that nurses who feel unsupported in the workplace have higher turnover intentions, emphasising the nurse managers’ pivotal role in directly impacting staff retention and wellbeing, and their role in driving positive organisational culture. This supports the overall investment towards improving nursing leadership with a focus on emotional intelligence, and prioritising staff wellbeing at its core.
This aims of this scoping review were to synthesise the evidence on the impacts of nurse leader emotional intelligence (EI) on nursing retention and well-being. Additional aims included understanding the influence of EI-informed leadership on nursing job satisfaction, and identifying best EI leadership training practices and recommendations to inform improvements and highlight evidence gaps within the mental health nursing context.
Methods: Systematic searches of PubMed, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were conducted yielding 593 papers which progressed to title and abstract screening. Included studies covered the relationship between nurse leaders, emotional intelligence, and staff retention. This study has adopted the five-step Arksey and O’Malley (2005) framework for scoping reviews as the guiding method, in addition to PRISMA-ScR. Included papers were analysed and data extracted, while each paper was independently subjected to quality screening using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT, 2018).
Results: Identified themes included trends, obstacles, and opportunities for enhanced leadership practices, that can assist with the development of an EI-informed leadership program in mental health which has a focus on staff retention.
Conclusion: This study's findings contribute to the evidence-base highlighting the direct correlation between EI-informed nursing leadership and staff retention, and is useful in sustaining and supporting the increasingly under stress mental health workforce.
Keywords: Emotional Intelligence, Nursing Leadership, Staff Retention, Mental Health Nursing

Aim: To ascertain whether mandatory use of patient deterioration Early Warning Systems (EWS) impacts the development of nurses’ higher-order thinking.
Methods: This national, cross-sectional study investigated Australian registered nurses’ attitudes and sociocultural factors that influenced the clinical use of EWS. The data, collected via an online Qualtrics survey, was analysed using descriptive statistics and simple correlations.
Results: Of the 161 respondents, most had more than 5 years of experience, had postgraduate qualifications and were directly responsible for patient care. Half of the nurses worked in metropolitan hospitals, 8% worked in rural or remote facilities, and the rest were from regional hospitals. Most stated they understood the purpose of the EWS and had received appropriate EWS training. Almost 85% of respondents thought the EWS an excellent tool for identifying deteriorating patients but perceived that their colleagues had a much lower opinion of the tool. Although 43% of respondents thought the EWS added value to their critical thinking, around 80% said that at least sometimes they found it challenging to comply with EWS guidelines because they chose to follow their clinical judgement. A quarter of the participants stated that they did not always accurately document all vital signs or omitted some vital signs because they believed the resulting high EWS score was not warranted. Almost 60% of the respondents said they override the EWS guidelines in favour of their critical thinking. When asked whether using EWS impacts the development of nurses’ higher-order thinking, 35% agreed, 19% disagreed, and the remaining 46% were ambivalent.
Conclusion: Although nurses recognise the value of EWS in assisting in the response to deteriorating patients, respondents in our study also identified that EWS impacted their higher-order thinking and overrode the EWS guidelines in favour of their critical thinking.
Keywords: Early Warning Systems, critical thinking, patient deterioration, nursing compliance.

Background and Aim/s: Timely recognition and response to clinical deterioration of hospitalised patients is identified as a significant healthcare priority area. In response, international bodies have implemented Early Warning Systems (EWSs) in an effort to keep people safe when they enter hospital. Registered nurses (RNs) play a central role in providing patient care and utilise EWS’s tools to support their clinical judgement when making decisions about patient care. The aim of this study was to generate a theory explaining how registered nurses employ their clinical judgement when complying with EWS’s protocols.
Methods: This classic grounded theory study undertook in-depth interviews of 20 Australian registered nurses and the data was analysed to answer the grand tour question “How does clinical judgement influence registered nurses’ use of Early Warning Systems?”
Results: The participants’ main concern when using EWS is that ‘Compliance with EWS is sometimes incongruent with the nurses’ use of their clinical judgement’ and the core concept that explains how participants resolve this main concern is ‘Acknowledging’. Through the primary clinical interventions of ‘Acting’ which is action taken to intervene and ‘Pausing’, when inaction is a committed action, RNs’ acknowledge their clinical judgement, the EWS, and optimise patient safety.
Conclusion: The theory ‘Acknowledging’ explains how nurses overcome their cognitive dissonance when employing clinical judgement and using EWS whilst acknowledging the importance of maintaining patient safety.
Impact: EWS are valuable and firmly embedded into contemporary health care systems and nursing practice, therefore refining their usability should have direct impact on recognition of patient deterioration and therefore patient safety. Our findings highlight the need for further research into the complexities of applying clinical judgement when using EWS to support registered nurses decision making in clinical practice. This in turn will impact patient safety and quality of care in healthcare settings that mandate the use of EWS.

Background: Half a million Australians, reside in remote Australia. Remote areas are characterized by small, isolated communities with high rates of ill health and few health providers. The nursing workforce in remote Australia is in crisis. A significant shortfall of nurses is predicted. The immersion of nursing students in remote settings may increase employment uptake in remote Australia following graduation.
Aims: The aim of this study is to explore the experiences, expectations and outcomes of final semester, undergraduate nursing students relocating to the Kimberley region of Western Australia to undertake an elective Rural and Remote Health Immersion Program (RRHIP).
Methods: This is a Pilot Project. Twelve students will study and participate in campus and community activities specific to the RRHIP, over eight weeks. A participatory methodology Photovoice, in conjunction with focus groups offers an innovative approach to assist researchers and students to understand and describe their experiences.
Results: Photovoice will be described. Preliminary findings from Focus Groups and Thematic Analysis will be reported.
Conclusion: Students participating in immersion programs report profound learning experiences, skill acquisition and connections with community. Despite challenges, including geographic and professional isolation (Thackrah, Thompson & Durey, 2014; Benson, Ryder, Gill & Balabanski, 2015) students recommend RRHIPs to their peers.
This study aims to provide evidence-based knowledge on methods to understand students’ experiences and inform content and implementation of future RRHIPs. This process may be transferable to other universities and disciplines developing similar programs.