Introducing the health of the nation outcomes scales into undergraduate nurse preparation: opportunities for development - a pilot project

The New South Wales Mental Health Outcomes and Assessment Tools (MH-OAT) initiative introduces The Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales (HoNOS) to routine clinical practice. This is a significant change in the way nurses document clinical information. This paper outlines a pilot project that introduced training in the use of the tool into an undergraduate nursing education program and subsequent clinical placement. The project aimed to introduce student nurses to the measure and highlighted the nature of contemporary and future Australian mental health nursing practice that will include the routine use of outcome measures. Twenty two of 25 third year student nurses completed a questionnaire that indicated that they did not find the completion of the tool difficult and developed knowledge, skills and confidence in completion of the measure during clinical placement. Ten student nurse preceptors indicated that practice in rating the measure as part of clinical placement was a useful exercise. The paper will identify opportunities for program development in relation to the content of nursing education, including the potential use of outcome measures by nurses and the use of the tool as a framework for preceptor's supervision activities. Potential areas for future research will be outlined.