Introduction
Psychiatric nursing is an appointed position of a professional nurse who holds specialization in mental health. This specialty is also known as mental health nursing, which provides care to individuals who have mental illnesses, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, depression, dementia, psychosis, and other similar illnesses that requires mental healthcare intervention. Not all nurses have the ability to become a psychiatric or mental health nurse, as such position requires additional knowledge beyond what is needed to become a licensed nurse. Furthermore, one must have the skill and passion to help individuals who suffer from mental illnesses towards their complete recovery. With this, the psychiatric nurses make significant contributions and play greater roles in achieving better mental health outcomes of their patients.
Psychiatric Nurse’s Unique Roles
Primarily, apart from the specific roles, nurses are also care providers. However, psychiatric nurses have unique and vast roles to attend to. As a provider of direct care, part of the psychiatric nurses’ roles is to consider the strengths and needs of a person, family, and even the whole community in order to assess the individual or population’s mental health needs. They also formulate diagnoses and create plans on how nursing care can be implemented. This ability requires an advanced learning in order to serve the population who need mental health care and service. The direct provision of care allows the psychiatric nurses to communicate with patients in an openly manner, which can help in the treatment process. In fact, Wortans, Happell, and Johnstone (2006), stated that some mental health patients were able to relate with psychiatric nurse than other medical professionals. This is evidence shows that apart from the knowledge on how to deal with mental health patients, the level of care that is being provided plays essential roles in the treatment process. Therefore, the uniqueness of psychiatric nurses’ roles encompasses both the knowledge and level of care provision.
Psychiatrists’ knowledge is important, but patients can feel whether or not the approach lacks care. This is also where the uniqueness of the role takes place. Psychiatric nurses are able to deal with patients with different mental conditions. For instance, the increasing importance of psychiatric nursing in relation to the management and treatment of individuals with schizophrenia (Gournay, 2000). Unlike the usual role of nurse practitioner, which takes orders from physicians, psychiatric nurses work almost exclusively schizophrenia patients and mentally ill elderlies, to which their roles are almost similar with consultant psychiatrists. The uniqueness of psychiatric nursing role enables the nurses to build therapeutic alliance, while dealing with different challenging behaviors of the patients. Their ability to provide psychological therapies and administer psychiatric medication create a transformative change to the people who needs mental health care.
Conclusion
Psychiatric or mental health nurses play unique and significant roles not only because they have an advanced knowledge of such discipline. These professionals have a broad scope of responsibilities that are important in creating a healthier mental health of a person. We can presume that psychiatric nurses have equal effectiveness to psychiatrist and in some cases, their efficiency is superior that their counterpart. The approach of psychiatric nursing creates a patient satisfaction that has better nurse-patient relationship in a holistic and down to earth manner. The contribution of psychiatric nurses in achieving better metal health is developed through their interpersonal skills, which can also help in the treatment of coexisting medical conditions.
References
Gournay, K. (2000). Role of the community psychiatric nurse in the management of schizophrenia. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 6(4), 243-249.
Wortans, J., Happell, B., & Johnstone, H. (2006). The role of the nurse practitioner in psychiatric/mental health nursing: exploring consumer satisfaction. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs, 13(1), 78-84.
