The Changing Roles of the Professions in Psychiatry and Mental Health: Psychiatric (Mental Health) Nursing

Abstract

Psychiatric (mental health) nursing is a relatively young profession that developed with great speed over this fifty-year period. In 1960, nearly all nurses were employed in large mental hospitals. While education and training were improving, nurses' roles in the 1960s largely involved the care and supervision of institutionalised patients. The pay and status of nurses were low, with nursing at the bottom of a medically led hierarchy. However, the 1970s saw a great expansion in community psychiatric nursing, the development of nurse therapy training and the gradual emergence of multidisciplinary teams. The education and training of nurses improved, as did pay conditions and status and, by 2010, nursing was becoming an all-graduate profession. The end of the era saw nurses becoming independent prescribers and skilled clinicians. Changes in the Mental Health Act meant that nurses could assume additional roles by becoming 'responsible clinicians' or 'approved mental health professionals'.