WINTER NEWS 2008 MEMBERS SURVEY
MENTAL HEALTH NURSING IN 2020
The ACMHN Board of Directors are interested in the thoughts and views of mental health nurses around a variety of issues. In response, we have developed a quarterly online questionnaire which mental health nurse can choose to complete if they wish. All answers submitted are considered confidential and no identifying data is collected. However, the content of the information provided may be used in developing ACMHN corporate policy or strategic documents, in reports generated by the ACMHN or in a conference presentation. We thank you for participating in this brief survey.


1. By 2020, how do you see the role of the mental health nurse will have changed or evolved?

1.1 What might be the positive changes?



1.2 What might be the negative changes?




2. What role do you see for the College in assisting mental health nurses towards this type of future?




3. Would you ever contemplate working in the primary care sector (e.g. in a general practice surgery) or in private practice as a mental health nurse? Why or why not?




4. Please answer either 4.1 or 4.2

4.1 If you are a credentialed, what does this mean to you?



4.2 If you are not a credentialed, do you intend to apply for a credential? (why or why not?)




5. What one innovation do you believe will benefit the mental health nurse of 2020 more than any other?
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CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE NH&MRC REGARDING THE ETHICS OF THE BRIEF SURVEYS BEING CONDUCTED VIA THE ACMHN WEBSITE

Thank you for your query regarding the applicability of the requirements of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 to your surveys. The NHMRC recognises and understands that the lines between day-to-day operations and research is often a fine distinction.  In these cases, it would be recommended that you ensure that the basic research considerations of risk, benefit, respect, consent and integrity are addressed.  As this is a survey where it is assumed that no identifying information will be collected and the greatest risk that would be faced by a participant would be no more than inconvenience would qualify as 'negligible risk research' (see p16 of the National Statement).  

Institutions can put in place alternative methods of review for negligible and/or low risk research (see http://nhmrc.gov.au/ethics/human/ahec/guidelines/ntnl_stat_guide/_files/NS_low_risk_flow_chart.pdf).  It seems like the College (as the institution) has endorsed the review of the proposed survey by the Board (as a defacto HREC or other review body).  The Board than can then approve the posting of the survey. Consent to participate is voluntary and can be expressed by the return of the completed survey (NS 2.2.5).

While the NHMRC cannot state if this survey is research or your normal day-to-day activities, it would seem that the College has considered a number of ethical elements that a HREC constituted in accordance with the National Statement would have considered.  Ultimately it is up to the institution to put in place policies and practices that ensure that any 'human research' that its employees undertake is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the National Statement.  The National Statement does recommend that institutions and bodies develop and publicise their ethical review policies.

Doing this would further add to the defensibility of the decision made and processes undertaken in relation to the survey.

We hope that this answer has been of use to you.

Kind regards,
NHMRC Health and Research Ethics Team
National Health & Medical Research Council