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The implications of legislative change on the future of psychiatric nursing in Victoria
1School of Postgraduate Nursing, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia. b.happell@nursing.unimelb.edu.au
Objective:
The aim of this paper is to explore the potential implications of the Nurses Act introduced in 1993 upon psychiatric nursing in Victoria. Essentially this Act abolished the existing separate undergraduate education for psychiatric nursing. The focus of this paper is to explore the potential implications of this legislative change to the psychiatric nursing profession, particularly in light of relevant research findings.
Method:
In order to ascertain the impact of legislative change, a survey of psychiatric nursing content was conducted in Schools of Nursing throughout Victoria.
Results:
A 100% response rate was achieved. The responses indicated that little alteration had been made to existing-general nursing courses to incorporate the change in legislation. The compulsory psychiatric nursing content varies from nil to 17.4% of the total curriculum.
Conclusions:
The theory and practice of psychiatric nursing constitute only a small proportion of undergraduate curricula. In view of the comparative unpopularity of psychiatric nursing as a career option for undergraduate students, the implications of this situation for the future psychiatric nursing workforce are serious.