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Diseases Written by Harriet Bailey in 1920 and The First Psychiatric Nursing Theorist

The evolution of mental health psychiatric nursing practice has been influenced by changing attitudes towards mental illness over time, from viewing those with mental disorders as demonic to developing more humane treatment in asylums and hospitals, and advances in scientific understanding of mental illnesses which led to developments like psychopharmacology and theoretical frameworks for psychiatric nursing. Major developments included the establishment of the first psychiatric hospital in the US, the publication of early psychiatric nursing textbooks, and influential theorists like Peplau and Mellow who developed models of psychiatric nursing focused on interpersonal relationships and meeting clients' psychosocial needs.

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Naifah Abdullah
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240 views

Diseases Written by Harriet Bailey in 1920 and The First Psychiatric Nursing Theorist

The evolution of mental health psychiatric nursing practice has been influenced by changing attitudes towards mental illness over time, from viewing those with mental disorders as demonic to developing more humane treatment in asylums and hospitals, and advances in scientific understanding of mental illnesses which led to developments like psychopharmacology and theoretical frameworks for psychiatric nursing. Major developments included the establishment of the first psychiatric hospital in the US, the publication of early psychiatric nursing textbooks, and influential theorists like Peplau and Mellow who developed models of psychiatric nursing focused on interpersonal relationships and meeting clients' psychosocial needs.

Uploaded by

Naifah Abdullah
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assignment:

1. Identify the factors that influence the evolution of the mental health psychiatric nursing
practice.
- The increasing number of people with mental disorders and the increasing demand
for psychiatric nursing practice are one of the factors that influence the evolution of
nursing practice in the psychiatric field. In ancient times, people with mental
disorders were seen as demonic and were punished and burned. Aristotle, at that time,
believed that mental disorders are result of imbalances of four humors such as the
happiness, calmness, anger, and sadness. Thus, treatment was aimed at restoring the
balance through bloodletting, starving, and purging. These treatments persisted well
into the 19th century. However, as the time goes by, people with mental disorders
were still considered as evil and were possessed and so were treated less than human
animal and prisoned. Then, the period of enlightenment began during the eighteenth
century in which Philippe Pinel in France and William Tuke in England formulated
the concept of asylum as a safe refuge for people with mental disorders who are
beaten, whipped, and starved because of their mental state. In this period, the insane
was no longer treated less than human. Philippe Pinel advocated kindness and moral
treatment and proved that releasing them from their chains improved their condition.
Then, the nineteenth Century came, this is the evolution of the psychiatric nurse. US
and other European countries began a movement that championed reformation of
ideas in establishing state hospitals. Thus, first psychiatric hospital as built in
America in Williamsburg, Virginia. Linda Richards was the first American
Psychiatric nurse and developed nursing care in state hospitals and directed school of
psychiatric Asylum in 1880. Her efforts resulted to the development of school for
nurses in more than 30 asylums. Then, the period of scientific study came in which
Sigmund Freud, Emil Kraepelin, Eugen Bleuler, and other numerous theorists and
researchers studied the psychiatry and diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. This
scientific period contributed to the evolution of mental health psychiatric nursing
practice by enhancing psychiatric care to patients such as the development of
psychopharmacology. The development of psychotropic drugs reduced the agitation,
psychotic thinking, and depression of patients and stabilizes their state. As the time
goes by, the first Psychiatric Nursing Textbook was published, Nursing Mental
Diseases written by Harriet Bailey in 1920 and the first psychiatric nursing theorist
was hailed, Hildegard Peplau. She developed a model for psychiatric nursing practice,
wrote the book “Interpersonal Relationship in nursing, emphasizes the interpersonal
dimension of practice, and wrote a history of psychiatric nursing. Another theorist
who shaped psychiatric nursing practice is June Mellow. Mellow’s 1968 work,
Nursing Therapy, described her approach of focusing on clients’ psychosocial needs
and strengths. Mellow (1986) contended that the nurse as a therapist is particularly
suited to working with those with severe mental illness in the context of daily
activities, focusing on the here and now to meet each person’s psychosocial needs.
The evolution of psychiatric nursing practice was also possible because of numerous
theorists and researchers who care for those mentally ill and who believed that they
have the responsibility to help the community.

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