S.TRUEMAN PhD THESIS 2016

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The researcher decided that any individual within this group who was more senior, too removed from remote mental healthcare delivery, or only indirectly familiar with the network supporting remote nurses, would be excluded from the study. An obvious example being a human resource manager situated in a regional or urban setting, involved in payroll issues of wages for remote nurses. This weak tie or tenuous relationship between them adds nothing material to the case under inquiry; to examine these relationships or ties adds no weight to this study’s findings. Administrators are aware of, and able to identify systemic needs to deliver remote mental healthcare: How efficiently, effectively and safely can we deliver that care, establish that system to enable that patient care is provided effectively and in a timely way. [T19, p. 7] In particular, administrators identified as issues the various difficulties experienced by remote nursing staff, such as recruitment and retention, vast distances involved with providing mental healthcare services with limited resources, difficulties associated with providing mental health upskilling courses and training and logistical challenges in evacuating mental health patients, particularly by air and security issues. All four participants from this group spoke anecdotally based on their own experiences: The key challenges for remote mental healthcare is ensuring there’s ready access to resources … to establish effective systems … how efficiently, effectively and safely can we deliver that care … in a timely way. Wrapped up in all of that is education and training. It needs to be sustainable, consistent, standardised and easy to access. [T19, p. 7]