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What Does Mental Health Nursing Actually Involve?

Mental health nursing deals with the complexity of mental illness and stress

Is mental health nursing suitable for me?

Mental health nursing covers a huge range of conditions including psychological and personality disorders, psychoses and neuroses.

There is often a stigma attached to mental illness that a mental health nurse needs to be able see through. It is often claimed that one in three of us suffer from a mental health problem of some sort.

A mental illness could be caused a wide range of different sources or stress, some of which are exaggerated elements of everyday life. Alternatively it could develop after the person simply couldn’t cope with an extreme event, such as the death of a loved one.

What key skills does a mental health nurse need?

While all health care workers need a good ‘bedside manner’ mental health nursing requires exceptional communication skills as well as a strong and empathetic personality.

You will need to make a strong connection with people with mental health problems and give out warmth and encouragement as well as being assertive in what the patient needs to do. This connection also needs to be made with the patient’s family to provide them with support and encouragement.

You will also need these assertive skills when dealing with the other people, to ensure that your patient is not discriminated against.

Another key skill is being able to detect when tension is building and to be able to diffuse it to avoid the potential of violent behaviour.

The human mind is much more complex than a physical injury like a broken leg and there is often not a set procedure so you will need to mix your scientific skills with your intuition and understanding of your patient’s personality.