Engagement
Engagement is a fundamental aspect of person-centered care. It promotes a culture of safety, impacts patient recovery, and influences patient and staff satisfaction. Engagement is an essential function for psychiatric-mental health nurses. PMH nurses use deliberate, meaningful interactions to establish trusting, therapeutic relationships that help connect, align, partner, and collaborate with people as they move toward their treatment goals.
Treatment environments can promote engagement by prioritizing and facilitating therapeutic interactions between nurses and patients. Leaders can set performance expectations for nurses to regularly seek out opportunities to communicate and connect with patients, and organizations can ensure that nurses have the time and space to be with patients. Nurses can create environments that are both safe and therapeutic by regularly and purposefully interacting with patients and using what they learn to craft individualized treatment interventions that meet patient needs.
The following selection of resources and literature, exploring the importance of engagement as a key element of safety as well as recovery, is organized chronologically from newest to oldest.
Resources:
Safewards Model
Bowers, L. (2025). https://www.safewards.net/images/pdf/Safewards%20model.pdf
Us vs. Them or Better Together? Why Nurse-patient Engagement is the Key to Safe Environments.
Blair et al., (2023)
https://e-learning.apna.org/products/1025-23-us-vs-them-or-better-together-why-nurse-patient-engagement-is-the-key-to-safe-environments
Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice. 3rd Ed.
APNA. American Psychiatric Nurses Association. (2022). https://www.nxtbook.com/apna/apna/psychiatric_mentalhealthnursing_3/index.php
References:
Pitfalls and Platforms in Workplace Violence Prevention
Blair, E. W., Allen, D. E., Delaney, K. R., Lindvall, R., McGill, A., Polacek, M., Schneider, L., Sharp, D., & Weaver, T. (2025). Pitfalls and platforms in workplace violence prevention. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10783903251320377
The association between empathy and the nurse-patient therapeutic relationship in mental health units: a cross-sectional study
Moreno-Poyato, A. R., Rodríguez-Nogueira, Ó., & MiRTCIME.CAT working group (2021). The association between empathy and the nurse-patient therapeutic relationship in mental health units: a cross-sectional study. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health nursing, 28(3), 335–343. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12675
Nurses’ influence on consumers’ experience of safety in acute mental health units: A qualitative study
Cutler, N, Sim, J, Halcomb, E, Moxham, L, Stephens, M. (2020) Nurses’ influence on consumers’ experience of safety in acute mental health units: A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing; 29: 4379– 4386. https://doi.org.turing.library.northwestern.edu/10.1111/jocn.15480
Conceptualizing nurse-patient therapeutic engagement on acute mental health wards: An integrative review.
Sarah McAllister, Glenn Robert, Vicki Tsianakas, Niall McCrae (2019) Conceptualizing nurse-patient therapeutic engagement on acute mental health wards: An integrative review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 93, 106-118. ISSN 0020-7489 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2019.02.013.
Relationship between the nursing practice environment and the therapeutic relationship in acute mental health units: A cross-sectional study.
Roviralta-Vilella, M., Moreno-Poyato, A. R., Rodríguez-Nogueira, Ó., Duran-Jordà, X., Roldán-Merino, J. F., & MiRTCIME.CAT Working Group (2019). Relationship between the nursing practice environment and the therapeutic relationship in acute mental health units: A cross-sectional study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 28(6), 1338–1346. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12648
Capturing the Interpersonal Process of Psychiatric Nurses: A model for engagement
Delaney, K. R., Shattell, M., & Johnson, M. E. (2017). Capturing the interpersonal process of psychiatric nurses: A model for engagement. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 31(6), 634–640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnu.2017.08.003
The therapeutic role of mental health nurses in psychiatric intensive care: A mixed-methods investigation in an inner-city mental health service McAllister, S, McCrae, N. (2017) The therapeutic role of mental health nurses in psychiatric intensive care: A mixed-methods investigation in an inner-city mental health service. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing; 24: 491– 502. https://doi.org/10.1111/jpm.12389
Engagement as an Element of Safe Inpatient Psychiatric Environments
Polacek, M. J., Allen, D. E., Damin-Moss, R. S., Schwartz, A. J., Sharp, D., Shattell, M., Souther, J., & Delaney, K. R. (2015). Engagement as an Element of Safe Inpatient Psychiatric Environments. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, 21(3), 181–190. https://doi.org/10.1177/1078390315593107
The bulldozer and the ballet dancer: aspects of nurses’ caring approaches in acute psychiatric intensive care
Björkdahl, A., Palmstierna, T., & Hansebo, G. (2010). The bulldozer and the ballet dancer: aspects of nurses’ caring approaches in acute psychiatric intensive care. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 17(6), 510–518. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2850.2010.01548.x
