Mental health lived experience academics in tertiary education: The views of nurse academics Brenda Happell a,b,c, ⁎ ,1 , Dianne Wynaden d,2 , Jenny Tohotoa e,f,g,3 , Chris Platania-Phung h,i,j , Louise Byrne a,b,c , Graham Martin k,4 , Scott Harris h,i,j a Central Queensland University, Institute for Health and Social Science Research, Bruce Hwy, Rockhampton, Queensland 4702, Australia b Central Queensland University, Centre for Mental Health Nursing Innovation, Bruce Hwy, Rockhampton, Queensland 4702, Australia c Central Queensland University, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Bruce Hwy, Rockhampton, Queensland 4702, Australia d School of Nursing and Midwifery, Health Sciences, Curtin University, GPO Box U 1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia e School of Nursing and Midwifery, Innovation Research Institute, Australia f School of Public Health and Curtin Health, Innovation Research Institute, Australia g Health Sciences, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, Western Australia 6845, Australia h CQUniversity Australia, Institute for Health and Social Science Research, Australia i CQUniversity Australia, Centre for Mental Health Nursing Innovation, Australia j CQUniversity Australia, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Australia k Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia summary article info Article history: Accepted 8 July 2014 Keywords: Lived experience Mental health Nurse education Service user Background: Australian national mental health strategy emphasises inclusion of people diagnosed with mental illness in all areas of mental health care, policy development and education of health professionals. However, the way this inclusion has translated to Australian universities is relatively unexplored. Objectives: Explore views of nurse academics regarding service user involvement in nursing education programmes. Design: Qualitative exploratory. Settings: Australian universities offering educational programmes in nursing at postgraduate and undergraduate levels. Participants: Thirty four participants from 27 Australian universities participated. Methods: Data were collected using semi-structured telephone interviews with academics involved in teaching and/or coordinating undergraduate and/or postgraduate mental health nursing contents. Data were analysed using content analysis based on four cognitive processes: comprehending, synthesising, theorising and re- contextualising data. Results: Four major themes emerged: good idea? long way to go; conceptualising the service user academic role; strengths of lived experience led student learning; and barriers to implementation. Conclusions: Findings indicated strong support for including mental health service users in teaching nursing stu- dents. However, at most universities service user engagement was often an informal arrangement, lacking clear guidelines and limited by financial barriers and the positioning of mental health nursing within curricula. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction Thirty four Australian universities are nurse education providers, offering undergraduate comprehensive nursing programmes of three or three and a half years duration. Mental health nursing content, both clinical and theoretical, of these programmes differs substantially in breadth and depth of content delivered and not all universities offer a specific mental health clinical placement (Mccann et al., 2010; Mental Health Nurse Education Taskforce, 2008). In addition, 23 universities offer specialist post-registration programmes in mental health nursing (Australian College of Mental Health Nurses Inc., 2011). In line with national mental health policy, involvement of users of mental health services is encouraged in all areas of health care including the education of health professionals (DoHA, 2012a). It is critical that students interact with and learn skills to work col- laboratively with mental health service users as early as possible in Nurse Education Today 35 (2015) 113–117 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Bruce Highway, Rockhampton, 4702, Queensland, Australia. E-mail addresses: b.happell@cqu.edu.au (B. Happell), d.wynaden@curtin.edu.au (D. Wynaden), j.tohotoa@curtin.edu.au (J. Tohotoa), c.platania-phung@cqu.edu.au (C. Platania-Phung), l.byrne@cqu.edu.au (L. Byrne), graham.martin@uq.edu.au (G. Martin), s.a.harris@cqu.edu.au (S. Harris). 1 Tel.: +61 7 49232164; fax: +61 7 49306402. 2 Tel.: +61 8 9266 2203, 0401103414 (Mobile); fax: +61 8 9266 2959. 3 Tel.: +61 0437037471; fax: +61 8 9266 2958. 4 Tel.: +61 7 336 55098. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2014.07.006 0260-6917/© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nurse Education Today journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/nedt