Mental Health Enrolled Nursing

Statewide Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Educators

CMHL welcomed three Statewide Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Educator postitions in 2020. As key members of the CMHL, the Educators work to facilitate connections between MHENs across the state, and provide the most up-to-date training to progress the workforce. 

A flyer with information about our work has been created to help connect us with the sector. 

A colour A5 poster can be printed for displaying in your services.

Mental Heath Enrolled Nurse Practice Network 

With the appointment of the Statewide Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Educators, it was a great opportunity to develop the Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Practice Network which plans to meet every 2 months.  

The Objectives of the MHENPN group are: 

• to ensure that timely and relevant two-way sharing of knowledge and expertise occurs between Mental Health Enrolled Nurses (MHEN) and the CMHL,   

• to facilitate collaborative planning, training, and evaluation,  

• to identify opportunities for partnership and collaboration  

• to ultimately support the professional development of the Victorian MHEN workforce.  

• to improve transparency of opportunities for growth making the mental health enrolled nurse a valuable employment option to maintain long-term (including support for EN3 promotion and specialty role development). 

If you would like to know more or join the MHEN practice network please email us at en.educators@cmhl.org.au  

New Enrolled Nurse Introduction to Mental Health day 

This training day is for Enrolled Nurses newly entering the Victorian public clinical mental health workforce, and provides an opportunity for attendees to connect with peers and develop introductory knowledge in the following topics:  

• the EN role in mental health
• the Mental Health System  
• the Mental Health Act including Supported Decision Making 
• Trauma Informed Care

This is a full-day, ONLINE event delivered via Zoom, three times a year.

Register here

Statewide Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Workforce Scoping Project 

The Centre for Mental Health Learning (CMHL) is pleased to provide the Statewide Mental Health Enrolled Nurse (MHEN) scoping report to the Department of Health (DH) Victoria.  

This report is the culmination of 8 months engagement with senior representatives from each Victorian Area Mental Health Service, including Forensicare, hereinafter referred to as AMHS. Direct consultation was also conducted with MHEN working in public mental health. Internal CMHL collation, analysis, and documentation of the data has been obtained from this process. This scoping report identifies the MHEN workforce profile across Victorian AMHS to support collaboration, growth, learning and development of our profession.  

Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Consultation Day 

This took place on 24th February 2021. 

CMHL held a virtual consultation with Mental Health Enrolled Nurses (ENs) from across Victoria, to understand their learning and development priorities, and begin strategic planning and visioning for the workforce.  

Introduced mental health enrolled nurses to Dave Barclay (consumer workforce) and Lorna Downes (family/carer workforce). 

25 Enrolled Nurses from 14 Area Mental Health Services were consulted. These areas included community teams, inpatient units, education, secure extended care units, older persons care, prevention and recovery care, clozapine clinics, forensicare, mobile support and treatment teams.  

Through this day we discovered what makes enrolled nurses unique, what enrolled nurses want, and what the top workforce development priorities were. Key findings from the day can be found here. 

Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Forum 

The theme for the 2021 Victorian Mental Health Enrolled Nurse Forum was Reflect, Empower, and Reform. ENs from across the state came together to celebrate their workforce and connect with each other. The event showcased presentations from ENs working in different areas of the mental health sector. Michelle Castro, an EN Educator from NWMH, discussed her role as an EN leader. Natasha Verspeek shared her diverse range of experiences that led to her EN career. And the cutest presentation was from Sue Bennet, Pam McIntosh, and Julie Duffy of Grutzner House who shared their resident chooks with attendees while presenting on their implementation of Safewards. In addition to EN presentations, Reece Jones provided a peer worker perspective and Jacara Egan presented on cultural safety. Nursing and Midwifery Health Program and Safer Care Victoria on clinical supervision and wellness support available to nurses.   

The wellness stream provided attendees with replenishment and connections via sensory modulation for worker wellbeing, ANMF and HACSU connections, and even Delta Therapy Dogs!  We celebrated the day with a special performance from young rapper Lily Kato! The CMHL EN Educators were supported by senior CMHL staff to lead the event from planning through to delivery of the day, demonstrating what EN leadership looks like in action.