Psychiatric Nursing from Past to Present Day

The origin of the psychiatric nursing can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries. In that years the keeper was responsible for helping to confine people who were deemed to be mad. With the passing of time the title of keeper changed to that of attendant, mental nurse, psychiatric nurse, nurse therapist and eventually mental health nurse. The role of the mental health nurse has changed over the last 30 years with clinical experience and mental health nurse has more autonomy.This role has been defined variously as biomedical and interpersonal. In 1960s it was accepted that psychiatric nursing basically has psychotherapist and counseling roles. Psychiatric nursing was began to consider in 1960s in Turkey. It is empasized that the nurses who are working in the psychiatric clinics definetely trained in this area. This article was compiled for the purpose of semtinizing changes during improvement process at psychiatric nursing.