Medical skills and knowledge. How necessary are they for psychiatric nurses?

1. Today's psychiatric population presents with a higher acuity and complexity of problems. Concomitant medical diagnoses may add to the psychiatric nurse's uneasiness with medical-surgical skills and knowledge. 2. A needs assessment survey of nurses' medical-surgical skills and knowledge was conducted at a private psychiatric facility. Of the 163 surveys distributed, 55 were returned (response rate = 33.74%). The greatest number of skill requests (30.56%) were for assessment skills, mainly general physical assessment. 3. To survive as a specialty, psychiatric nursing must include physical as well as psychologic assessments; psychiatric nurses must reintegrate a medical knowledge base while maintaining a balance with the psychodynamic aspects of care.