The current status and future challenges of psychiatric/mental health nursing.

To obtain a global picture of the current status of nursing education and nursing practice in the mental health/psychiatric field, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) sent a questionnaire to 23 of its 101 member associations. The basis for the selection was to obtain information from a broad spectrum of different associations, e.g. state of development--economic and political, language, and geographical region. Of these, 16 (or 69%) returned completed questionnaires, often accompanied by extensive supporting documentation. In addition, four nurses' associations in Africa completed the questionnaire during staff field visits in that region. This paper makes reference to the responses received to the questionnaire and some verbatim quotes are included.