27^th Global Nursing Education, Healthcare and Patient Safety Conference

Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing

Psychiatric nursing or mental health nursing is the appointed position of a nurse that specialises in mental health, and cares for people of all ages experiencing mental illnesses or distress. These include: neurodevelopmental disorders, schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, mood disorders, addiction, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, suicidal thoughts, psychosis, paranoia, and self-harm. Nurses in this area receive specific training in psychological therapies, building a therapeutic alliance, dealing with challenging behaviour, and the administration of psychiatric medication. There are many factors involved behind experiencing this disorder. Biological factors, life experience such as abuse or trauma, family history having mental health problems. There are more than 200 classified forms of mental illness. Some of the common disorders are bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder and dementia