A Self-Determination Theory perspective on the motivation of pre-registration nursing students

Research of current and past literature has identified an increasing shortage of mental health nurses, currently employed, within the Australian healthcare system. Strikingly more alarming is the rising number of mental health consumers; both with a lived experience and those with a current mental illness. This diversity between mental health nurses and mental health consumers only serves to increase the stigma and discrimination whilst further defining the barrier consumers experience when accessing health care services. This paper investigates how an innovative clinical placement, based on personal recovery and grounded in tenets of Self-Determination Theory of human behaviour, can influence the self-determined response of pre-registration nursing students towards working in the specialty area of mental health