The rise of public sector psychosocial nursing

For a number of years, the Department of Psychosocial Nursing, University of Washington, engaged in a region-wide State-University collaboration with the Division of Mental Health authorities in states of the Pacific Northwest. This collaboration provided the basis for another 12 years of a Washington State Division of Mental Health-Department of Psychosocial Nursing contract to improve nursing in the state's two mental hospitals. This article describes the history, contractual relationships, and components of these projects. It concludes with a discussion of the consequences of these years of State-University cooperation, including conceptual issues, and the generation of the psychosocial nursing subspecialty, public sector psychosocial nursing.