evidence based practice
Evidence based practice is where it's at.........................surprisingly though many people in the mental health teams i work in are so busy just doing the job managing caseloads and navigating the various computer systems and inputting data that there is hardly time to keep on the ball with research.
i manage to do this in my own time which is not ideal however its the only way at present, it's made a lot easier by the great people, which include other professionals, service users and carers and organizations i follow on Twitter and also by a brand new shiney easy to use site called The Mental Elf which i wholly recommend to all.
i am well known in my team for firing off emails with attachments of the latest interesting things i have found. i just need to organise my laptop better into files rather than random pages of links. i have also restarted the Journal Club, much to the groans of some of my team, but i think it's important that as a team we take time to learn together and work out how we can use the latest research in practice - it's all very well usuing theories and approaches but we need to be aware of what we are doing and why. Another great resource is the podcasts from the Institute of Psychiatry that are good to listen to in the car.
i think we are lucky to have the post qualifying framework in social work as it means we have the continual learning that is important in a fast paced ever changing work of mental health and i am not sure whether mental health nurses have anything similar.