Global Journal of Nursing & Forensic Studies
Open Access

In the realm of psychiatric services, nurses are the main group of health care workers who care for mental health care users. This puts them in a difficult position of providing outstanding care while also attempting to address the issues that this patient group presents. Nursing education must be cognizant of not only the diverse tasks of psychiatric nurses, but also the particular and sometimes intimidating problems that come with caring for mentally ill patients [1].

While psychiatric nurses' roles are becoming more well-known, little study has been done on the functions and problems of psychiatric nursing in local in-patient mental health care institutions. The current study looked on the roles of psychiatric nurses in in-patient facilities, as well as the obstacles and difficulties that come with caring for mental health patients.

396 psychiatric nurses were surveyed using a quantitative descriptive design. The sample consisted of 436 nurses drawn from the complete population of psychiatric nurses working in in-patient mental facilities in KwaZulu-Natal. The most common problems in psychiatric nursing practice were "mental health care users deny mental illness" and the difficulties of dealing with patients' unpredictable behavior. Nurses were also exposed to higher amounts of aggressiveness and violence, which was significant. Psychiatric nurses reported high levels of burnout, as well as sentiments of rage and dissatisfaction [2]. While psychiatric nurses indicated that they were well equipped to cope with mental health care users, the majority of them agreed that more training was required.

Within the context of mental health care users, psychiatric nurses encounter demanding and complex issues. They are expected to manage ward administrative activities, admit mental health care users, attend meetings, dispense medication, and communicate with mental health care users in addition to supporting and caring for persons hospitalized for treatment of mental diseases.

Most psychiatric nurses spend more time managing the ward environment and staff issues than developing and maintaining therapeutic patient connections with this vulnerable population. Psychiatric nurses' jobs, despite this, are numerous and necessitate constructive interactions with patients who appear with a variety of mental health disorders, both locally and internationally. In acute psychiatric settings, additional stressors include limited staff and excessive workloads. Psychiatric nurses in South Africa have struggled to define the unique tasks they play in this specialized setting. Psychiatric nursing activities include domestic and clerical supervising chores, serving mental health care users' meals, giving medication, admissions, and restraining violent mental health care users, according to research [3]. Despite the fact that there is limited research in the sector in South Africa, a few qualitative studies have shown that psychiatric nurses need to examine if they have the knowledge and skill to deal with the intricacies of psychiatric nursing. Several researchers have stated that in order to offer adequate care, nurses must have specialist mental nursing knowledge and abilities when caring for psychiatric patients. While empirical research on features of mental nursing care has grown around the world, there has been a dearth of study in South Africa on this area. To shed light on this aspect of nursing care, much of the research conducted in South African in-patient psychiatric facilities has adopted a predominantly qualitative approach.

There has been no survey to date on the difficulties of caring for psychiatric in-patients, the specific mental health problems that mental health care users face, or whether psychiatric nurses are appropriately prepared to cope with these issues [4].

The purpose of this study was to look into the duties of psychiatric nurses in in-patient psychiatric hospitals, as well as the key obstacles connected with caring for mental health care consumers and nurses' educational preparedness to deal with these challenges. The goals of this study were to determine which mental health issues are most common among mental health care users at the identified in-patient facilities, to investigate the challenges faced by psychiatric nurses when caring for mental health care users, to determine their educational preparedness to deal with this specialized area of nursing practice, and to determine what specialized knowledge and skills are required when nursing mental health care users [5].

A psychiatrist, a medical practitioner, a nurse, an occupational therapist, a psychologist, or a social worker who is trained and qualified to provide adequate mental health care, treatment, and rehabilitation services is referred to as a mental health care practitioner.” A person receiving care, treatment, or rehabilitation services, or using a health service at a health establishment aimed at improving the user's mental health status" is defined as "a person receiving care, treatment, or rehabilitation services, or using a health service aimed at improving the user's mental health status."

The author would like to acknowledge his Department of Psychiatry from the University Hospital Limerick for their support during this work.

The author has no known conflicts of interested associated with this paper

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