There are just 27 student nurses in mental health, which, Mental Health Commissioner John Cachia warns, is inadequate to address staff shortage issues.
Figures supplied to the Times of Malta by the University of Malta show that 27 students are reading for a bachelor’s degree in mental health nursing. Six more are reading for a master’s in mental health nursing and six for a general nursing master’s with a specific focus on mental health.
Only a handful of students will graduate and enter the workforce every year, figures show. In 2017, there were 10 students who graduated as mental health nurses, and in the previous year, only three completed the three-year university course.
Dr Cachia said the number of mental health student nurses needed to increase, pointing out the stigma surrounding the issue could be behind the low figures.
It was common practice for general nurses to work in the mental health sector when they did not have the specific training required of those working with psychiatric patients, he added.
Read: Real issues at Mount Carmel Hospital need to be addressed
No effort should be spared with regard to ensuring patients’ welfare, Dr Cachia cautioned, especially when it came to training those who cared for them.
A university spokeswoman said that various outreach activities had been held to increase awareness about the undergraduate and post-graduate programmes relating to mental health nursing.
When asked whether the university deemed the number of students focusing on mental health to be sufficient to address staff shortages, the spokeswoman referred the Times of Malta to the health authorities.
However, the questions sent to the Health Ministry on the matter and what was being done to address the nursing shortages had not been not answered by the time of writing.
Nurses complained earlier this month that the situation at Mount Carmel Hospital had hit “rock bottom”, with sentiments of shock and deep concern expressed by NGOs and patients’ relatives when a teenager was found dead after escaping from the hospital. The victim was supposed to have been under constant watch when he escaped.
At the time of the teen’s death, a spokesman for the Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses said that severe staff shortages impeded nurses from giving patients the care they required.