Quality care for the seriously mentally ill: a dream deferred.
This is a study of a system in change-a public mental hospital, isolated by the strong Koolau mountains and neglected by its citizens. At the end of 1990, the federal Department of Justice jolted the people of Hawaii into recognizing the poor quality of care provided to their family members at the Hawaii State Hospital (HSH). This model of a recruitment and retention project was developed to address education, professional development, and recruitment needs of nursing staff at HSH to improve quality of care. The interventions were based on a dynamic model of collaboration between a public state hospital and a university school of nursing in the creation of a learning community. The components of the project provide for nursing staff to continue their formal university education, services of advanced practice nurses, and continuing education classes for nursing staff.