PSYCHIATRIC NURSING AS AN INTEGRAL PART OF NURSING PRACTICE IN THE PSYCHIATRIC WARD - A NARRATIVE REVIEW

Psychological care involves caring for the patient's psychological needs using a range of skills such as listening, perceiving, communicating, and empathizing, with the ultimate res of alleviating human suffering. The nurse spends the most time with the psychiatric patient; she is with the patient from his admission to the hospital, during his stay, until he leaves the hospital. Observing the patient's behavior, she determines problems in health care. In order for a nurse to solve this problem, she must be educated, experienced in her professional vocation, and have a good knowledge of the healthcare process, because that is the only way she can make an appropriate plan and choose the most appropriate interventions. In addition to knowing the process of health care, a nurse must also be extremely patient and possess certain communication skills due to the nature of the illnesses of patients suffering from psychiatric disorders. Therapeutic communication is actually the core and essence of all interactions between a nurse and a patient. It is often stated that it is the nurse who takes care of the psychiatric patient and who has the most face-to-face contact with patients. The nurse deals with the total personality of the psychiatric patient, and therefore she applies models that make the assessment of the patient's needs the basis of health care. The main goal of this scientific review is to investigate and analyze the role of psychiatric nursing as an indispensable element in nursing practice, explore its importance for improving the quality of health care and patient well-being, and provide guidelines for the integration of psychiatric nursing in nursing practice.