The cultural context of mental health nursing

Culture includes the values, norms, and behaviors of a group. This article broadens the view of culture from that of a group of persons with common race or ethnicity and a shared belief system to include the clinical specialty of psychiatric-mental health nursing. Through a review of the American Nurses Association's (ANA, 1994), document A Statement on Psychiatric-Mental Health Clinical Nursing Practice and Standards of Psychiatric-Mental Health Clinical Practice, the values espoused by the leaders in the field are illuminated and compared with societal values reported in the literature. The implications of these values for nursing practice, education, and research are discussed.