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Many nurses are burned out, exhausted and have a high intent to leave their jobs. These factors, when experienced over a period of time, are consistent with the development of mental illness. This study takes a collective autoethnographical approach to mental illness in the nursing workplace by focusing on the stories of nurses who have experienced mental illness in clinical practice. It highlights three ways in which nursing and mental illness are connected; the nurse who is vulnerable to mental illness prior to entering the profession, the nurse who develops mental illness that is independent of her work but is nevertheless impacted by it, and the nurse who develops mental illness as a result of her work and/or role. This paper explores the hyphenated lives and bullying these nurses experience, and recommends strategies that the profession, employing organisations, and individuals can adopt to reduce nurses' progression from stress to distress and mental illness.

International literature and New Zealand health policy is giving increased emphasis to the role of the primary health care sector in responding to mental health issues. These issues include the need for health promotion, improved detection and treatment of mild to moderate mental illness, and provision of mental health care to some of those with severe mental illness who traditionally receive care in secondary services. These developments challenge specialist mental health nurses to develop new roles which extend their practice into primary health care. In some parts of New Zealand this process has been under way for some time in the form of shared care projects. However developments currently are ad hoc. There is room for considerable development of specialist mental health nursing roles, including roles for nurse practitioners in primary mental health care.