A Historical Overview of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing in Turkey

This paper describes the improvement and current status of nursing and psychiatric mental health nursing (PMHN) as a specialization in the Republic of Turkey. We focus on the educational development and issues in practice and policies in regard to PMHN. Today, PMHN is one of nine areas of specializa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of mental health 2007-12, Vol.36 (3), p.73-83
Main Authors: Terakye, Gülçen, Oflaz, Fahriye
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Medical practice
Mental health
Mental illness
Military nursing
Nurse specialists
Nurses
Nursing education
Nursing legislation
Psychiatric hospitals
Psychiatric nurses
Psychiatric nursing
Psychiatric services
Turkey
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper describes the improvement and current status of nursing and psychiatric mental health nursing (PMHN) as a specialization in the Republic of Turkey. We focus on the educational development and issues in practice and policies in regard to PMHN. Today, PMHN is one of nine areas of specialization in nursing. Although master's and doctoral level specialization-specific programs are available for nurses, the number of specialized psychiatric-mental health nurses are few, and role definitions have not yet been acknowledged for these advanced level nurses in the Turkish health care delivery system. Thus, specialized psychiatric-mental health nurses have struggled to be a part of the policy-making process in Turkey and to be recognized for their knowledge of and activities in preventive and health promotion, as well as their ability to provide psychiatric care. There is an urgent need for new legislations and organizations providing specialized psychiatric-mental health nurses to practice independently. This paper addresses the possible issues for the future of PMHN in Turkey.
ISSN:0020-7411
1557-9328
DOI:10.2753/IMH0020-7411360309