The War between Adult and Mental Health Nurses

26-Apr-2012 8:41 am

Different beasts and their own perceptions of their work.
The adult nurse is seen as the vanguard of the profession and portrayed in that way on TV and in Film (mostly).
The mental health nurse remains hidden despite their own abilities.
In my experience (about to retire) the adult nurses are very task driven in relation to diagnosis and care, whilst verbally suggesting they work with the 'whole of the person' this is not demonstrated in their care and planning; examples of this are in dealing with the elderly with dementia.
Whereas the MH nurses tend to view the the 'person' not the diagnosis, and intervene at a number of different levels.
Other evidecne anecdotally is that Adult nurses in the main (not all) are not psychologically minded and get frustrated with the behaviour of patients who do not 'cooperate' rather than looking for the reason a patients behaviour may be unhelpful or distressing
HTH