Undergraduate psychiatric nursing education at the crossroads in Ireland. The generalist vs. specialist approach: towards a common foundation

This paper provides a critical overview of undergraduate educational preparation for psychiatric nursing and proposes the use of a model, which may equip psychiatric nurses to adapt to current and future directions in psychiatric nursing practice. It contends that mental health nursing is a distinct scope of practice and as such requires specialty undergraduate education. A major difference between educational preparation for psychiatric nursing in the Republic of Ireland and the UK, and distinct from most other developed countries, is the existence of separate, specialized pre‐registration programmes that, upon graduation, allow the nurse to register as a psychiatric nurse. In other countries such as, Australia, the integration of pre‐registration nurse education into the university sector resulted in the wide‐scale adoption of a generalist approach to nurse education. In light of the recent changes in pre‐registration nursing education in Ireland, and the integration of nursing into higher‐level education, this paper examines the generalist vs. specialist approach to nurse education. It contends that neither the generalist nor the specialist model best serve the nursing profession in preparing safe and competent practitioners. Rather, it argues that the use of a model which incorporates both generalist and specialist perspectives will help to redress the imbalance inherent in both of the existing approaches and promote a sense of unity in the profession without sacrificing the real strengths of specialization. Such a model will also facilitate psychiatric nurses to adapt to current and future directions in psychiatric nursing practice.