CAMHS PRACTICE NETWORK

WHAT DO WE PROVIDE?

This practice network is designed to assist nurses working in this specialty area of practice to communicate, network and consult on current nursing and health related issues within New Zealand. Practice Networks provide an opportunity to advance the political voice of nurses working in specialty areas. This network has an email system that allows you to communicate with any nurse who has joined this Practice Network.

WHO IS THE PRACTICE NETWORK FACILITATOR FOR THIS GROUP?

Janet Palmer is the Practice Network Facilitator for the CAMHS group. Here is a Janet's profile.

My career as a nurse in Child and Adolescent Mental Health has been an interesting and varied journey so far.  I initially trained as a paediatric nurse in the UK, but after a 2 week elective placement on an inpatient child and adolescent mental health unit, I switched my career to mental health and haven’t looked back!  I have since worked on several other inpatient facilities both in Auckland and the UK and completed my degree in mental health nursing.

Currently I am working as a Clinical Team Member (and more recently Clinical Nurse Specialist) at the Kari Centre (Community Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service - ADHB).  During this time I have continued to challenge myself academically by completing my post grad cert in child and adolescent mental health and papers in CBT for children and adolescents

I am passionate about my work in CAMHS, and believe nurses have a unique and important role to play in this specialty area.  My personal interests include promoting and educating students, new grads and registered nurses about working in this area, and pathways for nurses to pursue once working in CAMHS in order to develop and challenge their practice.  I presented a poster at the NZCMHN Conference earlier this year entitled “Where are all the nurses?”.  It looked into reasons why nurses choose not to work in CAMHS; there were several themes which included: nurses felt concerned about not having the skills necessary for this specialty; were worried that their training was inadequate for this specialty, and misconceptions of what nurses do in CAMHS.

I am keen to see more nurses working in this area and hope that this network can be a way of reaching out to nurses considering this career path.  I would also hope this network can provide a voice for nurses working in this speciality to communicate and consult with each other up and down the country.