[Concepts on the supraregional sociopsychiatric continuing education of female and male nurses within the competence of the "Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe" (author's transl)].

The new activities of nurses working in the field of psychiatry, resulting from the realisation of sociopsychiatric and sociotherapeutic concepts, have led to an expansion of the "job description" of the nursing personnel. Intensive measures for additinal training and continuing education will have to be taken to acquaint this personnel with these new tasks. Such measures have already been initiated from 1969 onwards in various places within the Federal Republic of Germany. For the psychiatric hospitals looked after by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, a continuing education commission which comprises co-workers of various job categories and institutions, developed a continuing education concept about which this article reports in detail with regard to target aims and tasks to be tackled.