INTRODUCTION Nurses comprise the largest mental health workforce globally (WHO, 2021), with workforce shortages widely reported, including in the United Kingdom (Adams et al., 2021), Sweden (Holmberg et al., 2018) and the United States (Alexander et al., 2015; Rice et al., 2019). In Australia, by 2030 the national projected shortfall of nurses will be highest in the mental health sector (State of Victoria, 2019).