A programme for the continuous actualisation of the psychiatric nurse self

M.Cur. (Psychiatric Nursing)Health professionals are trained so that the government's objective of making health care accessible to all its citizens is realised. Psychiatric nurses in particular, receive specialised nurse training to assist them to promote mental health in people afflicted with mental illness. The dynamics of the psychiatric nursing practice context have undeniably been affected by the democratic, political and legislative changes in the country. The diverse cultural challenges that arose as a result of political changes challenge the interaction of psychiatric nurses and patients in the practice context. Psychiatric nursing is taught as a comprehensive education programme, a requirement for a basic nursing diploma or degree, as a post-basic nursing diploma and at post-graduate level. Psychiatric institutions are staffed with nursing personnel that are psychiatrically trained at different levels of the psychiatric nursing programmes. Psychiatric institutions also serve as a clinical practice base for the-training of psychiatric nurses. The researcher, while interacting with psychiatric nurses as a psychiatric nurse lecturer, observed that psychiatric nurses poorly utilise the psychiatric knowledge and skills received during psychiatric nurse training in practice to benefit the psychiatric patients they interact with daily. A qualitative descriptive, explorative and contextual research study was undertaken to explore and describe how psychiatric nurses experience their interaction with psychiatric nurses on a day-to-day basis. Psychiatric patients also described how they experienced their interaction with psychiatric nurses on a day-to-day basis