Improving nursing care services for children and adolescents with severe emotional disorders

The purpose of this article is to address the educational and training needs of students in programs designed to prepare advanced nurse clinicians in child and adolescent psychiatric nursing in order to improve the care of severely emotionally and behaviorally disturbed (SED) children. To accomplish this task, several related issues have been addressed. These include: information on the types and rates of disorders in children, variables associated with psychopathology in children and adolescents, psychiatric care needs and the settings in which interventions occur, information about child and adolescent psychiatric nurses, and the current status of the educational scene for child and adolescent psychiatric nurses. Finally, recommendations for strategies to improve the care of SED children and their families are presented.