A 'domains of practice' approach to the standards of psychiatric and mental health nursing.
Standards have considerable influence on the practice of a discipline. As the written and explicit expectations of nurses held by their professional group, nursing practice standards serve as a basis for performance evaluation and as a clarification of the areas of nurses' accountability. Delineated here are the issues that the Canadian Federation of Mental Health Nurses faced as they attempted to identify and describe the nursing behaviours essential to this specialty area. A rationale for the 'domains of practice' approach is provided. The problems inherent in creating such a national document are addressed. Seven practice domains are described; the standards for two domains, the 'Helping' and the 'Effective Management of Rapidly Changing Situations', are outlined in detail.
Austin
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W
Gallop
R
R
Harris
D
D
Spencer
E
E
D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence; D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description; D016294:Models, Nursing; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*