Abstract
Introduction: Nurses’ roles in specialist mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services are multidimensional and complex. Their responsibility, autonomy and interdisciplinary collaboration may be of importance for their per-ceived opportunities to accommodate patients’ health needs. Previous studies of
interdisciplinarity and nursing responsibilities have mainly focused on outcomes such as patient safety, job satisfaction and organizational factors, and included relatively small samples. The studies have also mainly been conducted in other sectors than the mental health and SUD nursing sectors.Aim/Question: The aim of this study is to examine the associations between nurses’ roles, interdisciplinarity and their perceived opportunities to accommodate patients’ psychosocial, somatic and economic/legal needs.Method: A cross-sectional web- based questionnaire survey was conducted in a na-tionwide sample of Norwegian nurses in the mental health, SUD treatment and com-bined mental health and SUD treatment sectors. Of 5,501 contactable nurses (74% of the population), 1918 (35%) responded.Results: The results revealed that interdisciplinarity was significantly associated with greater perceived opportunity to accommodate patient needs, whereas strictly de-fined nursing roles/responsibilities were associated with less opportunity to accom-modate these needs.Discussion/Implication for practice: Facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration may improve quality of care for patients in mental health and SUD treatment services.
interdisciplinarity and nursing responsibilities have mainly focused on outcomes such as patient safety, job satisfaction and organizational factors, and included relatively small samples. The studies have also mainly been conducted in other sectors than the mental health and SUD nursing sectors.Aim/Question: The aim of this study is to examine the associations between nurses’ roles, interdisciplinarity and their perceived opportunities to accommodate patients’ psychosocial, somatic and economic/legal needs.Method: A cross-sectional web- based questionnaire survey was conducted in a na-tionwide sample of Norwegian nurses in the mental health, SUD treatment and com-bined mental health and SUD treatment sectors. Of 5,501 contactable nurses (74% of the population), 1918 (35%) responded.Results: The results revealed that interdisciplinarity was significantly associated with greater perceived opportunity to accommodate patient needs, whereas strictly de-fined nursing roles/responsibilities were associated with less opportunity to accom-modate these needs.Discussion/Implication for practice: Facilitation of interdisciplinary collaboration may improve quality of care for patients in mental health and SUD treatment services.