BASIC CONCEPTS IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING

MENTAL HEALTH
• Is a state of emotional, psychological, and social
wellness evidenced by satisfying personal
relationships, effective behavior and coping, a
positive self concept, and emotional stability.
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH
• Autonomy and Independence
• Maximizing One’s Potential
• Tolerating Life’s Uncertainties
• Self-esteem
• Mastering the Environment
• Reality Orientation
• Stress Management
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH –
AUTONOMY AND INDEPENDENCE
• The individual can look within for guiding values and
rules to live by.

• The opinions and wishes of others are considered but

do not dictate the person’s decisions and behavior.

• The person can work independently or cooperatively

with others without losing his or her autonomy
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH –
MAXIMIZING ONE’S POTENTIAL
• The person has an orientation toward growth and
self-actualization.

• He or she is not content with the status quo and

continually strives to grow as a person.
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH –
TOLERATING LIFE’S UNCERTAINTIES
• The person can face the challenges of life’s day-to-
day living with hope and a positive outlook, despite
not knowing what lies ahead.
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH – SELF-
ESTEEM
• The person has realistic awareness of his or her
abilities and limitations.
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH –
MASTERING THE ENVIRONMENT
• The person can deal with and influence the
environment in a capable, competent, and creative
manner.
COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH – REALITY
ORIENTATION
• The person can distinguish the real world from a
dream, fact from fantasy, and act accordingly.
 COMPONENTS OF MENTAL HEALTH – STRESS
MANAGEMENT
• The person can tolerate life stresses, experience
feelings of anxiety or grief appropriately, and
experience failure without devastation.

• He or she uses support from family and friends to

cope with crises, knowing that the stress will not last
forever.
 MENTAL ILL HEALTH
• A state of imbalance characterized by disturbance in
a person’s thoughts, feelings and behavior.
 MENTAL DISORDER (AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC
ASSOCIATION, 1994)
• Is a clinically significant behavioral or psychological
syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and
that is associated with present distress (i.e., painful
symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or
more important areas of functioning) or with a
significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain,
disability, or an important loss of freedom.
 PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
• Interpersonal process whereby the health practitioner
through the therapeutic use of self assists a family,
group, or community to promote mental health, to
prevent mental illness and suffering, to participate in the
treatment and rehabilitation of the mentally ill, and if
necessary to find meaning in these experiences.

• It is both a science and an art.

 THE SCIENCE
IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
• The use of different theories in the practice of
nursing serves as the science of Psychiatric Nursing
 THE ART
IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
• The therapeutic use of self is considered as the art of
Psychiatric Nursing.
 THE CORE
OF PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
• The interpersonal process, that is, the human-to-
human relationship, is the core of Psychiatric
Nursing.
 THE CLIENTS
IN PSYCHIATRIC NURSING
• The individual, the family, and the community, both
mentally healthy and mentally ill, are considered as
the clientele in Psychiatric Nursing.
 MENTAL HYGIENE
• It is the science that deals with measures to promote
mental health, prevent mental illness and suffering
and facilitate rehabilitation.
THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF
 THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF
• During therapeutic communication, nurses use
themselves as a therapeutic tool to establish a
therapeutic relationship with the client, to help the
client grow, change, and heal.

• It is the main tool used by the nurse in the practice of

Psychiatric Nursing.
 THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF
• Using one’s humanity – personality, experiences, values,
feelings, intelligence, needs, coping skills, and
perceptions – to help the client grow and change is called
THERAPEUTIC USE OF ONE’S SELF

• It is the main tool used by the nurse in the practice of

Psychiatric Nursing.

• It is the positive use of one’s self in the process of

therapy
 THERAPEUTIC USE OF SELF
• Hildegaard Peplau (1952), who described this
therapeutic use of self in the nurse-client
relationship, believed that nurses must have a clear
understanding of themselves to promote their
clients’ growth and to avoid limiting clients’ choices
to those valued by the nurse.

• Therapeutic use of self requires SELF-AWARENESS!!!

 SELF-AWARENESS
• Self-awareness means an understanding of one’s
personality, emotions, sensitivity, motivation, ethics,
philosophy of life, physical and social image, and
capacities

• It is the process by which the nurse gains recognition

of his or her own feelings, beliefs, and attitudes.
 SELF-AWARENESS
• The nurse needs to discover himself and what he believes
before trying to help others with different views.

• Most of the time, the nurse’s values and beliefs will conflict
with those of the client, the nurse must learn to accept
these differences among people and view each client as a
worthwhile person regardless of the client’s opinions and
lifestyle.

• Therefore, understand YOURSELF before understanding

OTHERS!
 SELF-AWARENESS
• The greater the nurse’s understanding of his or her
own feelings and responses, the better he or she can
communicate with and understand others.

• One tool that is useful in learning more about oneself

is the JOHARI WINDOW (Luft, 1970), which creates a
“word portrait” of a person in four areas and
indicates how well a person knows himself or herself
and communicates with others.
 SELF-AWARENESS
• Self-awareness means an understanding of one’s
personality, emotions, sensitivity, motivation, ethics,
philosophy of life, physical and social image, and
capacities (Campbell, 1980).

• It is the process by which the nurse gains recognition

of his or her own feelings, beliefs, and attitudes.
 SELF-AWARENESS
• The nurse needs to discover himself and what he believes
before trying to help others with different views.

• Most of the time, the nurse’s values and beliefs will conflict
with those of the client, the nurse must learn to accept
these differences among people and view each client as a
worthwhile person regardless of the client’s opinions and
lifestyle.

• Therefore, understand YOURSELF before understanding

OTHERS!
 SELF-AWARENESS
• The greater the nurse’s understanding of his or her
own feelings and responses, the better he or she can
communicate with and understand others.

• One tool that is useful in learning more about oneself

is the JOHARI WINDOW (Luft, 1970), which creates a
“word portrait” of a person in four areas and
indicates how well a person knows himself or herself
and communicates with others.
 METHODS USED TO INCREASE
SELF-AWARENESS
• ROLE PLAY
– Putting yourself in the client’s situation allows you to think about his or
her thoughts, feelings and actions.
• INTROSPECTION
– Self-awareness can be accomplished through reflection, spending time
consciously focusing on how one feels and what one values or believes.
– Keep a diary that focuses on experiences and related feelings.

• DISCUSSION
– Talk with others about your own experiences and feelings and how they
feel about similar experiences.
– Try to seek alternative points of view.

• ENLARGING ONE’S EXPERIENCE

– Being involved in new situations and experiences will uncover qualities in
yourself you might have not seen before.