Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing

When a person is mentally ill or is suffering from a mental disorder, he needs a lot of care and emotional support apart from medication. This care and support is provided by a special domain of nursing known as Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing. Popularly, these are known as Psychiatric Nursing or mental health nursing. Equipping the nurses to deal with people who are mentally 'ill' are special training programs on psychological therapies, therapeutic alliances and administering psychiatric medication.

What is a Therapeutic Relationship?

To understand Psychiatric Nursing well, we need to understand Therapeutic Relationship. Conceptually, therapeutic relationship goes beyond the boundaries of medicine. An effective therapeutic relationship forged between the patient and the nurse will help the patient draw tremendous amount of mental strength from himself. The major onus for forging this relationship lies with the nurse who would need to proactively engage the patient in a positive and a collaborative manner.

How can Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing help in treating cases of depression and mental illness?

Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing helps the treatment of depression cases through the Physical/Biological , Psychosocial and Spiritual Interventions.

  • Physical and Biological Intervention - A mental health professional may choose between Psychiatric Medication, Electroconvulsive therapy and physical care as major forms of treatment. This intervention includes nurses administering intramuscular injections to the patient, assisting the doctors in preparing for anesthesia and more. Please note that the nurses may not have the authority to prescribe any medication to the patients directly.

  • Psychosocial Intervention - Nurses give cognitive behavior therapy, family therapy and other forms of psychotherapy interventions to the patients. Nurses are trained to implement psychological techniques which the nurses teach the patients to help them with a self-tool for them to recover from depression. In most cases, psychosocial interventions are given in conjunction with Psychiatric Medication.

  • Spiritual Interventions - In many cases, nurses take a spiritual approach to curing the patients out of depression. Patients are taught the art of meditation, candle meditation and prayers. Nurses believe that these easy to implement techniques help the patients draw a lot of energy from themselves which could revitalize them in many ways.

By the looks of it, it may sound that psychiatric nursing is a very tough job. It can be if one thinks that a lot of science is involved in each and every step. In truth, apart from psychiatric medications, all other techniques dwell on the interactions between the nurse and the patient.

Nurses may be trained from the best of institutes to do mental health nursing, but in the end they may only succeed if they are passionate and committed to the cause.