Geropsychiatric nursing: focus and setting.

Derivation of theoretic frameworks unique to psychiatric mental health nursing practice is dependent on locating and evaluating contextual bases of practice. The purpose of this report is to provide evidence indicating that chronically mentally ill elderly patients in nursing homes must be considered as one such contextual base of practice, and that the symptomatic behaviors of this population must be regarded as a phenomena of concern. Furthermore, it is suggested that psychiatric mental health nurses can generate practice-relevant knowledge by using an ecologic orientation as a framework for the study of the phenomena of symptomatic behaviors in this population.