Ward Teaching in a Mental Hospital

Abstract

T HE ultimate purpose of any program of nursing education is the development of an individual who is capable of giving the best possible care to the patient and who, in her practice, demonstrates the principles of prevention. In a mental hospital this implies a nurse who is understanding and tactful in dealing with her patients, who has maturity of judgment, who is dependable, adaptable, and well adjusted. We wish our students to carry their knowledge of mental hygiene and mental nursing into the whole nursing field and apply the principle of caring for the whole individual in the general hospital and in the public health field. We also wish our psychiatric training to develop better-adjusted nurses who do not repress their conflicts but who solve them on a conscious plane. During the last ten years the efficacy of the nursing curriculum has been questioned. A standardized curriculum has been applied in the teaching of unstandardized students; in other words, it has not been adapted to the needs of individuals in specific situations. In the process of improving formal instruction, the value of clinical teaching has been temporarily obscured. In many instances the student has been working blindly on the wards. She has not been able to