title: Back to the future: making a case for including the history of mental health nursing in nurse education programmes.
abstract: Reflections on nursing history, the nature of its workforce and its evolution as a profession can be powerful tools in the development of professional identity. Historical accounts of mental health nurses' practice and how they are socially, politically and culturally positioned within a particular time frame serve to illustrate that as practitioners we are precariously placed within a certain point in history. This paper emphasises the importance of mental health nursing historical research within nurse education curricula as a means of situating current theories, practice and professional identity. It further proposes that as today's practice becomes tomorrow's history, mental health nursing will continue to respond in a dynamic way to the practices and policies of the day.
authors.affiliation: School of Social and Health Sciences, The University of Abertay Dundee.
authors.forename: June L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Leishman
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005544:Forecasting; D006663:Historiography; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D020380:Needs Assessment; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000266:history; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000193:education / Q000458:organization & administration; D010687:Philosophy, Nursing / Q000266:history; D011361:Professional Competence; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000193:education / Q000266:history; D012933:Social Identification