Mental health nurses’ perceived preparedness to work with adults who have child sexual abuse histories
Authors: Kennedy Caragh , Morrissey Jean , Donohue Gráinne 
Published: September 2020

Accessible summary

What is known on the subject?

The high prevalence of adults presenting to the mental health services places mental health nurses (MHNs) in a unique position to help to identify and support the person with the associated challenges of child sexual abuse (CSA).

Feelings of discomfort have been identified by mental health nurses (MHNs) when working with survivors of CSA due to a lack of knowledge, poor confidence and feeling unprepared to inquire and respond to such a sensitive topic.

What does the study add to existing knowledge?

MHNs are willing to engage in CSA dialogue; however, the level of engagement is often conditional with clear parameters set by participants.

Whilst all participants reported they were willing to engage in conversation initiated by the service user, some were unwilling to listen to details of the CSA and used strategies to censor service users from providing details of the CSA.

What are the implications for practice?

Whilst self‐protecting boundaries helped MHNs to engage in CSA dialogue, strategies to censor aspects of the service user’s dialogue may reinforce the belief that their experience of CSA is too shameful to talk about, hence denying the reality of their experience and contributing to feelings of re‐shaming.

MHNs need a combination of theoretical knowledge and psychosocial skills to achieve clinical competence when working with CSA; therefore, training should not only include information pertaining to facts and statistics but also case presentations, clinical training and supervision.

Clinical supervision was highlighted by all participants as a necessary means of formal support, more specifically group clinical supervision whereby peer support can also be availed of in a formalized setting.

Introduction

The high prevalence of adults presenting to the mental health services places mental health nurses (MHNs) in a unique position to support the person with the associated challenges of CSA, yet little is known about the preparedness of MHNs to work with this client population.

Aim

To explore MHNs’ perceived preparedness to work with adults who have CSA histories, and to elicit their views, skills and confidence in relation to working with this sensitive issue.

Method

In‐depth semi‐structured interviews were conducted with five consenting MHNs. A qualitative descriptive methodology informed the study. A thematic analysis framework guided the data analysis.

Results

The findings assert that MHNs are willing to work with survivors of CSA despite feeling unprepared to so, MHNs described feeling ill‐prepared in how to respond to CSA, calling for not just education and training specific to CSA but also citing the need for clinical supervision and additional guidelines to enhance their preparedness.

Discussion

Results of this study further highlighted the omission of CSA within nursing curricula and the absence of role models within clinical practice as a major barrier to preparedness to work with survivors of CSA. Recommendations are made for training, education and the inclusion of clinical supervision.