The mental health nurse plays an essential role in treatment planning and provision of care together

with other medical professionals to provide a total health care to a mentally ill patient. Like other types
of nurses, mental health nurses assess and monitor patients. They oversee administering the medicines
and monitoring the charts of the patients. They also participate in the treatment planning in the physical
and emotional aspect of the patient. In fact, nurses play a central role in planning for among the medical
team for no one knows the patient better than them. Nurses work together with psychologists,
psychotherapists, sociologists, doctors and the like to formulate the appropriate program for the patient.
The treatment plan is made and adjusted according to the assessment and records of nurses attending
the patients. However, the role of mental health nurse is not only limited to medicines and treatment
plan.

Emotional support and reassurance are also vital roles that a mental health nurse needs to fill in. Nurses
attitude is very crucial for they are the ones who spent most of the time the patient. Building a
foundation of trust and respect is important. Talking and listening to the patient in a nonjudgmental way
is a significant step in caring for a mentally ill patient. Nurses should always consider patients as strong
individuals and must be aware of their frustrations and emotional pains for them to assess and address
these problems since these feelings can affect the effectiveness of the treatment. This can be done
through a mental health interview which can be lengthy and requires proper approach and
management. Interviews does not only create bond bonds between patients and nurses but can also
open doors of opportunity for communication and mental assessment. This is also a way to know how
the patient is responding to treatments and how his physical and mental states are. This should part of
the routine of a mental health nurse. It can be difficult at times but having communication and respect
will promote a better atmosphere and a much easier provision of care due to the mutual understanding
of the both parties. Therefore, collaborative work between the patient and nurse is important.

Another important role of a mental health nurse is educating the patients and their families about the
illness and on how to handle and manage their situation. This is important since families have a crucial
role in the development of the patients condition. However, this can be a situational basis. There are
cases in which the root of the illness is in the patients experience within his or her family. It can be a
traumatic experience and involving the family may pull a trigger to the patients condition. Thus, the
involvement of the family may not be a good option for such case. Another issue that frequently
excludes the family is the patients right to confidentiality with his or her doctor. This is where
communication between the nurse and patient comes in for the nurse to evaluate what step is necessary
to be done. In some countries, family intervention programs are implemented based on the principles
developed by the World Fellowship for Schizophrenia and Allied Disorders - an international organization
of national family support groups, for the intervention of families in the mental health care. These
principles include listening to families as equal partners, assessing the familys difficulties, exploring their
expectations on the treatment and of course, providing an explicit response plan for crises, encouraging
clear communication among family members, helping resolve family conflict by providing sensitive
response to emotional stress, addressing feelings of loss and of course, providing relevant information
about the treatment at appropriate times. Under this light, proper training of medical professional such
as nurses on working the families is a must. They need the skills to teach the families to become active
carers and leave the mentality of being the passive victims behind.

These roles are not easy to fulfill and require much effort and attitude from a mental health nurse. The
nurse should be knowledgeable enough about the patients condition. Not only about what the specific
illness is but also about the cause of such illness. Is it from a traumatic experience, or an in born illness?
Knowing these things will at least give an idea unto how will a nurse approach the patient and what are
the right words to say. Since mentally ill patients are very sensitive and unpredictable at times, talking to
them in a right way with right words are crucial.

A nurse should become or at least show a patient and approachable attitude. This is for the patient to
feel comfortable to share whatever feelings and burden he or she is keeping. The nurse should show that
he or she is willing to listen and understand.

LEGGATT, M. (2002). Families and mental health workers: the need for partnership. World Psychiatry,
1(1), 5254.

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/nursing/practice/Pages/mental-health-nursing.aspx

https://www.apna.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3292

Ricky Person. (2014, August 3). Re: Working as a metal health nurse [Web log message]. Retrieved from
https://www.gapmedics.com/blog/2014/08/13/working-as-a-mental-health-nurse

Smith, J. (1997). Knowledge and attitudes of acute care nurses towards patient in the acute are setting
with a diagnosis of mental or emotional illness (Masters thesis). Available from ProQuest. (UMI No.
186956)