Our Departmental Features are being run monthly, up to our Employee Recognition Week (February 26 to March 3, 2023). This initiative aligns with our Hospital’s strategic priority of Staff Experience, by recognizing and celebrating the work that our staff are doing every day. To see past Departments of the Month, please visit the Employee Recognition Week page of the intranet. This month we are looking at the Mental Health Nursing Resource Team.
The Mental Health Nursing Resource Team (MHNRT) was created as a separate entity from the Medical Nursing Resource Team in order to allow nurses with an interest and experience in mental health nursing to work solely on the Forensic, Adult and Child & Adolescent Mental Health units. In providing care exclusively to mental health patients, the enhanced skills of this specialized team has a positive impact on patient experiences and outcomes, as well as increasing staff satisfaction and performance.
Our team enjoys the work they do in this area as it provides a variety of experience as opposed to being assigned to the same unit. Smaller team means a smaller vacation planner and because the scheduled shifts are often unassigned, there is more flexibility within the schedule as a result.
Some of the services offered by this team includes inpatient and outpatient care. Specific treatment plans are developed to meet individual patient needs, which may include individual or group therapy and involves various clinical programming. The inter-professional team includes members from the following disciplines:
- Psychiatry
- Nursing
- Social Work
- Psychology
- Occupational Therapy
- Leisure Life Skills (Recreational Therapy)
- Behavioural Therapy
- Nutrition
- Spiritual Care
All MHNRT staff attend ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) and maintain current non-violent crisis intervention (NCVI) certification.
The MHNRT takes time to recognize our staff during Nurses’ Week, which takes place in May of each year.
