Skip to ContentGo to accessibility page
OpenStax Logo
Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing

Summary

Psychiatric-Mental Health NursingSummary

Summary

3.1 Therapeutic Communication and Relationships

Communication is an art and a science. The facets of communication—sender, message, channel or mode, recipient, feedback—are consistent, but the human component brings in other considerations like emotions, nonverbal cues, and boundaries. The nurse must continually strive to communicate in a therapeutic manner and avoid common obstacles like inattention, false encouragement, and infringing on physical, emotional, and social boundaries. The nurse must also learn to reflect on the interactions with clients to improve their active listening skills and nonverbal communication and enhance their compassion.

3.2 Client Perception of Illness

Mental health and mental illness are complex and have many dimensions, in part because of beliefs and attitudes toward the topics. Many clients have formed their beliefs from the cultures in which they were raised as children and from their adult experiences. When a client is experiencing a mental illness, the perceptions of mental health treatments can be the driving force behind whether or not the client seeks help and/or complies with treatment. Education is one of the most important ways to influence perceptions and beliefs. Nurses are responsible to help educate on mental health and should take an active part in this mission.

3.3 Nursing Assessment and Clinical Tools

The nurse should conduct physical and psychosocial assessments with psychiatric clients. The psychosocial assessment includes questions about the client’s environment, lifestyle, and mood and encourages the client to express their problems. The Clinical Judgment Measurement Model, also addressed in this section, provides a framework for understanding the client needs, how to prioritize their needs, and how to put in place interventions to meet the needs and evaluate the outcomes.

PreviousNext
Order a print copy
Citation/Attribution
Reuse and redistribution of this content in digital or print format:
  • This book may not be used in the training of large language models or otherwise be ingested into large language models or generative AI offerings without OpenStax's prior written permission.
  • This book uses the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License, which means that you can reuse and modify the material only for noncommercial purposes, must attribute OpenStax, and must distribute any derivative works under the same license.
  • Any commercial printing of this textbook, including using a local or custom printer, must be approved by OpenStax, and proper citation provided.
  • OpenStax-copyrighted images, activities, assessments, and similar components of this book are subject to the same licensing – CC-BY-NC-SA. They can be used for noncommercial purposes with attribution. Commercial use requires permission.
  • Permission requests: Anyone who intends to incorporate this content (including text, images, and other components) into large language models, use it in AI offerings, use it commercially (including in print), and/or has questions about another use case is welcome to complete our reuse request form.
Attribution information
  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial print format, then you must include on every physical page the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/psychiatric-mental-health/pages/1-introduction

  • If you are redistributing all or part of this book in a noncommercial digital format, then for every page that includes OpenStax content, you must license the derivative work under the same CC-BY-NC-SA license as the original, and include on every digital page view the following attribution:

    Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/psychiatric-mental-health/pages/1-introduction

Citation information

The information below includes the information needed to generate citations in most major styles (APA, MLA, etc.); you must reformat and organize the information as needed to fit the requirements of the style. Use the information below to generate a citation. We recommend using a citation tool such as this one.

© Jul 23, 2026 OpenStax. Textbook content produced by OpenStax is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. The OpenStax name, OpenStax logo, OpenStax book covers, OpenStax CNX name, and OpenStax CNX logo, and Rice University name, and Rice University logo trademarks, or wordmarks are not subject to the Creative Commons license and may not be reproduced without the prior and express written consent of Rice University.