Constructing international professional identity: what psychiatric nurses talk about on the Internet

The Internet is in the very early stages of being exploited by psychiatric nurses. Following an explanation of e-mail lists, this paper describes an analysis of the first 16 months operation of such a list devoted to psychiatric nursing. Those topics having international resonance for psychiatric nurses were: nursing models, labelling theory, the relationship of psychiatric nursing to medical psychiatry, the risks of depersonalised care, community care, and service cutbacks. Costs and benefits of the e-mail list to individual psychiatric nurses are described and evaluated. It is concluded that e-mail lists have the capacity to contribute to an international psychiatric-nursing identity in a unique and highly personal way. The Internet has many more possibilities for exploitation by psychiatric nurses.