Therapeutic Role of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing in Psychological Therapies (Quantitative and Qualitative Study)

The aim of this study was to assess therapeutic role of psychiatric mental health nursing in psychological therapies. A sequential explanatory design was conducted at El-Abbasia Psychiatric-Mental Health Hospital (governmental hospital), Institute of Psychiatry- Ain Shams University (governmental hospital), and El Kasr El-Ainy psychiatric Hospital (governmental hospital and Nile Sanatorium of Psychiatry at El-Maady. The qualitative study involved 180 nurses who are randomly selected while the second phase included a purposive sample composed of eight nurses. Tools for data collection; Tool 1 (Descriptive explorative questionnaire) “Therapeutic Role of the Mental Health Nurse”, Tool 2 (psychological therapies within the context of psychiatric nursing practice). Results of the quantitative study indicated that Psychological therapies or techniques that received the highest response rates were "counseling" by percentage of 38.9%, "group psychotherapy" by percentage of 8.3%, and "solution focused therapy" with the same percentage of 8.3%. While the therapies/ techniques with the lowest response rates were "mixture of previous methods", "psychoanalysis", and "Cognitive Behavioral Therapy" by percentage of 2.2%, 2.8%, and 3.3% respectively. The results of the qualitative study resulted in four major themes which are traditional nursing role, therapeutic nursing role, skill acquisition, and suggestions for improving the profession. The study concluded that mental health nurses had low knowledge, negative attitude, and little practices regarding psychological therapies. Recommendations; study recommended that Psychiatric-mental health nurses should receive formal training in psychological therapies.