The Role of Clinical Vigilance and Awareness in Scottish Undergraduate Mental Health Nursing Students’ Formation of Confidence and Knowledge in Novel Psychoactive Substance-Related Healthcare Treatment
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11057183 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Iain Lindsay (0009-0005-6133-9379, Abertay University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 118-141 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contemporary Drug Problems (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0091-4509 • E-ISSN: 2163-1808 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00914509251361525 |
| OpenAlex | W4413271600 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 75 |
Novel psychoactive substances (NPSs) present a significant challenge to healthcare professionals working in Scotland. An area that has not previously been researched is student nurses’ feelings of knowledge and confidence in relation to NPS. This study aimed to provide data on this topic. An evidence-based presentation on NPS was produced. Five undergraduate mental health nursing students at a Scottish university were recruited as participants. They completed identical quantitative questionnaires assessing perceived levels of knowledge and confidence surrounding NPS pre- and postwatching the presentation. A focus group followed where the participants were asked how their perceived levels related to feelings of competence. The results showed that participants valued knowledge on clinical vigilance and awareness (CVA) over other themes measured, with it appearing to act as a lens by which to understand NPS-related phenomena observed in practice. These findings are explored in relation to the concepts of the theory–practice gap and the null curriculum. The author argues that knowledge pertaining to CVA may play a crucial role in helping to resolve the theory–practice gap in the context of NPS by facilitating nursing student understanding of the relative salience of knowledge and skills developed in other clinical contexts to this area of working, with this also acting as a vehicle by which NPS-relevant knowledge may be transferred from its place in the null and hidden curricula to that of the explicit curriculum. CVA is also considered alongside Rhodes and Lancaster's concept of evidence making and Race's idea of emergent causality, with the author arguing that CVA may help facilitate student nurses’ orientation toward attitudes consistent with the former and avoid problematization (in the Foucauldian sense) of relevant service users aligning to the latter
Cognitive psychology · Competence (human resources) · Curriculum · Feeling · Health care · Mental health · Pedagogy · Psychotherapist · Salience (neuroscience) · Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints · Medicine · Nursing · Pharmaceutical Practices and Patient Outcomes · Psychology · Schizophrenia research and treatment · Social Psychology
Guidelines for Conducting Mixed-methods Research
Doing F oucault
The stigma-vulnerability nexus and the framing of drug problems
Sample Size and its Importance in Research
Drug Consumption Rooms and Public Health Policy
Assessment of Nursing Care and Teaching
New Psychoactive Substances in the Homeless Population
The use of synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) within the homeless population
Increased risk of non-fatal overdose associated with non-prescribed benzodiazepine use in Scotland, UK
Synthetic cannabis’
The impact of changes in UK classification of the synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists in ‘Spice’
Producing the vulnerable subject in English drug policy
Producing the ‘problem’ of new psychoactive substances (NPS) in English prisons
The impact of the 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act on synthetic cannabinoid use within the homeless population
From the clinic to the street
Problematisations in drug use policy, practice and research
Making evidence and policy in public health emergencies
Streets of the ‘spice zombies’
Methodological Rigor in Mixed Methods
Supporting thinking on sample sizes for thematic analyses
The Null Curriculum
New for Who
Complex Events
The becoming of methadone in Kenya
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Evidence-making interventions in health
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |