SCHOLARLY PAPER Australian nursing curricula and mental health recruitment Philip Warelow RN PhD Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia Karen-Leigh Edward RN PhD Research Assistant, Australian Catholic University, St. Vincent’s Centre for Nursing Research, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Accepted for publication March 2009 Warelow P, Edward K-L. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2009; 15: 250–256 Australian nursing curricula and mental health recruitment Debate about nursing curricula has been on the forefront of industry and academia in Australia particularly since the shift from the ‘apprenticeship style’ of training for nurses to a university-based, comprehensive, bachelor’s degree. There is the suggestion that university-based courses are rather inflexible and take for granted that the provision of mental health nursing across what is an essentially general course will ultimately attract the numbers of quality staff members required to fill speciality positions in mental health. Recent literature advocates for a direct entry undergraduate mental health programme in Australia, similar to that in the UK. This is suggested as one of many strategies to address the growing disparity between the demand and the supply for effective mental health treatment and care. The support of preceptor staff in the clinical field in terms of workloads, supervision and professional development are also identified as areas for attention. Another strategy that this paper addresses is the increased support of student preceptors in the areas of workload, supervision and professional development, whereas they forge organizational links between the tertiary sector and industry to facilitate enhanced communication channels between the theoretical curriculum (the theory) and the clinical sites (the practice). Additionally, increasing the mental health content in current curricula to a level that reflects hospital-based and community mental health needs is also required. Key words: comprehensive degree, mental health, training, undergraduate curricula. INTRODUCTION This paper will discuss aspects of nursing in the under- graduate curricula and how it relates to mental health recruitment difficulties in Australia. Discussion about nursing curricula has been at the forefront of industry and the subject of academic debate in Australia since the move from the apprenticeship style of training to a university- based comprehensive bachelor of nursing degree. This paper will consider the educational shift in nursing preparation in terms of skill mastery, theory to practice synthesis for specialized domains of health in which these comprehensively trained nurses are expected to work effectively. Comprehensive courses (programmes that prepare nurses for beginning practice in a range of health-care contexts) were originally designed to educate and prepare Correspondence: Philip Warelow, School of Nursing, University of Ballarat, Mt. Helen Campus, University Drive, Ballarat, VIC 3353, Australia. Email: p.warelow@ballarat.edu.au International Journal of Nursing Practice 2009; 15: 250–256 doi:10.1111/j.1440-172X.2009.01751.x © 2009 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd