Premium
Community psychiatric nursing in the Netherlands: a survey of a thriving but threatened profession
Author(s) -
KOEKKOEK B.,
VAN MEIJEL B.,
SCHENE A.,
HUTSCHEMAEKERS G.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.2009.01461.x
Subject(s) - thriving , threatened species , nursing , medicine , psychiatry , psychology , psychotherapist , ecology , habitat , biology
Accessible summary• Community psychiatric nursing is a widespread nursing differentiation across the world. • In spite of their large numbers, Dutch community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) have contributed little to the literature. • Community psychiatric nursing has developed within the typical Dutch system of strictly separated hospital‐based and community‐based psychiatric care. • The autonomous position of CPNs is challenged by increasing evidence‐based practice and specialization in both nursing and mental health care. • An increased focus on research and evidence‐based practice is necessary to maintain the merits of the community‐based psychiatric nursing approach.Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the Dutch community psychiatric nursing profession. In spite of their large numbers, estimated at 2900, Dutch community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) have contributed little to the international literature. The history of the profession reveals a relatively isolated development, resulting in few connections with nursing and mental healthcare research. Because of various developments in these fields, CPNs appear under threat. A survey design was used to administer a 43‐item electronic questionnaire, which yielded a response rate of 40%. The Dutch CPN has a mean age of 48 years, works about 32 h per week and has over 20 years of nursing experience. The Dutch CPN has a caseload of 48 patients, often participates in clinical intervision and hardly works according to evidence‐based methods. Dutch community psychiatric nursing is, paradoxically, both thriving and threatened. CPNs seek to maintain a model that pays attention to both social needs and explanations, and to psychiatric diagnoses. This broad orientation may be considered essential to nursing. However, it is also a huge drawback as CPNs have not succeeded to clearly articulate what their profession adds to the care and treatment of psychiatric patients.