Solution focused nursing : a fitting model for mental health nurses working in a public health paradigm

The Australian Federal Government health agenda is advocating an extension of public health principles across all levels of the health sector. Since mental health nurses have long been proponents of public health and health promoting behaviours, an opportunity exists for this specialty of nursing to extend their influence and contribution within health. Solution focused nursing (SFN), a model that emerged from mental health practice, offers a framework to assist mental health nurses and leaders to more clearly practise public health principles within nursing and articulate that practice – for it is in the articulation of practice that nurses and nursing is made visible and valued. This paper aims to expand on and reiterate the SFN model, showing how it connects to public health principles anddevelops the mental health nurse’s role – particularly in those clinical areas that require more thanmedical management and illness stabilization.