"Missing in Action" in Psychiatric Nursing History: The Role of Chief Nurse Adele S. Poston and Her Band of Nurses During World War I.

This is the first nursing journal article to introduce the pioneering work of American psychiatric nurse leader, Adele S. Poston. Poston supervised a team of nurses as they cared for soldiers serving with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I in France. Poston and her nurses worked in the first American specialized neuropsychiatric hospital in a war. The soldiers they treated primarily had functional nervous disorders described at that time as "shell shock" or "war neuroses." The traumatized officers and enlisted men were considered capable of being cured and returned to active duty based on research done by American psychiatrists among British troops during the first 3 years of the war. The story of Poston's career prior, during, and after the war and her work with other nurses during a global war are significant in psychiatric nursing history. Bringing this hitherto missing piece of psychiatric and nursing history into the light gives us a unique opportunity to recognize Poston and the nurses who served with her, even as today we recognize the nurses who serve during the global COVID-19 pandemic. [Journal of Psychosocial and Mental Health Services, 59(6), 37-47.].

[Psychiatric nurses experiences of the humanization movement during the first and second waves of deinstitutionalization in Quebec (1960-1990)]. / Les infirmières psychiatriques témoins d'un mouvement d'humanisation au cours des premières et deuxièmes vagues de la désinstitutionnalisation au Québec (1960-1990).

Introduction : This study examines the humanization movement at the Saint-Jean-de-Dieu psychiatric hospital between the 1960s and the 1990s.Context : Conducting a historiography of psychiatric deinstitutionalization in Quebec during the twentieth century shows that the institution was a place of social control and, above all else, a place where psychiatric patients were neglected and dehumanized.Objective : While the historiography since the 1960s has focused on a largely one-dimensional and critical reading of the way in which deinstitutionalization took place in Quebec, I have instead chosen to focus on the changes that took place within the Quebec hospital's walls.Method : In addition to the medical records of the patients who were interned in 1961, I conducted interviews to examine the experiences and emotions of nurses who worked in the psychiatric hospital between the 1960s and 1990s.Results : The examination of medical records revealed patients' reluctance and resistance to reintegrate into society. The interviews with nurses revealed that they often felt close to their patients.Discussion : The words and memories of nurses enrich and deepen the complexity of the history of psychiatric nursing practices, extend the existing historiography, and open new avenues for research in the field.Conclusion : The deinstitutionalization movement promoted mental health policies that transformed the old psychiatric hospital. This new analytical approach contributed to renewing the history of psychiatric nursing practices.

Letters From Peplau.

BACKGROUND: Dr. Hildegard Peplau, considered to be our first modern Nurse theorist and the Mother of Psychiatric Nursing, was a prolific writer, engaging in correspondence with colleagues and students who sought her professional and theoretical expertise. Through these letters, she influenced psychiatric nursing while maintaining a broad international network of professional colleagues. OBJECTIVES: An analysis of letters, written between 1990 and 1998, provides insights into Peplau's last decade of professional life and a model of how to support the next generation of nurse scholars. DESIGN: Using content analysis, 24 letters received between 1990 and 1998 were read, reread, and coded. Recurring themes were identified. RESULTS: Three themes were identified. These include Peplau, the Person: Living a Life of Professional Balance; Lighting a Spark: Investing in the Next Generation; and Work in the Vineyards of Nursing: Maintaining a Life of Scholarship. The letters depict Peplau's keen intellect, her wide professional network, her leisure time spent with family and friends, and her own work to assure that her theoretical legacy continued. CONCLUSIONS: Peplau's insights continue to be relevant as psychiatric mental health nursing leaders engage in activities to support the next generation of scholars and leaders.

Different Places, Different Ideas: Reimagining Practice in American Psychiatric Nursing After World War II.

In 1952, Hildegard Peplau published her textbook Interpersonal Relations in Nursing: A Conceptual Frame of Reference for Psychodynamic Nursing. This was the same year the American Psychiatric Association (APA) published the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1st ed.; DSM-I; APA). These events occurred in the context of a rapidly changing policy and practice environment in the United States after World War II, where the passing of the National Mental Health Act in 1946 released vast amounts of funding for the establishment of the National Institute of Mental Health and the development of advanced educational programs for the mental health professions including nursing. This article explores the work of two nurse leaders, Hildegard Peplau and Dorothy Mereness, as they developed their respective graduate psychiatric nursing programs and sought to create new knowledge for psychiatric nursing that would facilitate the development of advanced nursing practice. Both nurses had strong ideas about what they felt this practice should look like and developed distinct and particular approaches to their respective programs. This reflected a common belief that it was only through nurse-led education that psychiatric nursing could shape its own practice and control its own future. At the same time, there are similarities in the thinking of Peplau and Mereness that demonstrate the link between the specific social context of mental health immediately after World War II and the development of modern psychiatric nursing. Psychiatric nurses were able to gain significant control of their own education and practice after the war, but this was not without a struggle and some limitations, which continue to impact on the profession today.

[Théodore Simon (1873-1961). The career of a psychiatrist involved in the professionalization of psychiatric nurses]. / Théodore Simon (1873-1961). Itinéraire d?un psychiatre engagé pour la professionnalisation des infirmiers et infirmières d'asile.

Well-known for having created the famous Metric Scale of Intelligence along with the psychologist Alfred Binet (1857-1911), what is less known is that Théodore Simon (1873-1961) was also a major actor of the professionalization of psychiatric nurses in France. From his engaged textbook published in 1911 to his journal, explicitly titled ?L'Infirmier Psychiatrique,? which he created in 1953 via the specialized school he founded and directed between 1946 and 1957 at the Maison Blanche hospital in Neuilly-sur-Marne, Simon worked throughout his career for the acknowledgment and the training of those he considered as true partners. This is what we want to demonstrate in this paper, which redraws the forgotten career history of this militant psychiatrist in order to shine a light on his commitment to the professionalization of psychiatric nurses.

[The end of the asylum, a change in representations]. / La fin de l'asile, un bouleversement des représentations.

Through the major changes which the psychiatric hospital has undergone throughout history, the question is raised of the identity of caregivers, what the psychiatric asylum provides as a response to mental illness, and the function of the asylum as a place for receiving and then caring for patients, within society. These radical changes, which undermine the narcissism of caregivers, have consequences both within the psychiatric hospital and society as a whole. Consequences which question the very notion of care in a post-modern society.

Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing in China: Past, Present and Future.

The mental health service model and policy have undergone dramatic changes and are moving toward the establishment of integrated service network-based community mental health services in China. But there are still some issues, such as shortage of resources, a relatively low rate of psychiatric treatment, lack of the knowledge about mental health in the general population, and stigma associated with mental disorders. This paper summarizes the history of psychiatric and mental health nursing in China and analyzes the characteristics of the current situation. There are healthcare challenges for psychiatric and mental health nurses with the mental health services reform by government, and in this paper we discuss future trends and provide suggestions for development of the psychiatric nursing profession, and mental health services reform.

[Coercive Measures in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Post-war Germany, Using the Example of the "Pflege- und Beobachtungsstation" in the State Psychiatric Hospital Weissenau (1951-1966)]. / Zwangsmaßnahmen in der Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie in der Nachkriegszeit am Beispiel der Pflege- und Beobachtungsstation des Psychiatrischen Landeskrankenhauses Weissenau (1951-1966).

Coercive Measures in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Post-war Germany, Using the Example of the "Pflege- und Beobachtungsstation" in the State Psychiatric Hospital Weissenau (1951-1966) The patient admissions at the children's ward of the State Psychiatric Hospital Weissenau in the years 1951, 1956, 1961 and 1966 were analyzed regarding documented coercive measures. Shortage of staff, mainly inadequately skilled personnel, a mixing of age groups in the patient cohort, neurological and psychiatric disorders and of patients who were in need of nursing and of those who needed treatment constituted the general work environment. Coercive measures against patients, mostly disproportionate isolations, were a constant part of daily life on the ward. This affected in particular patients who had to stay longer at the hospital and whose stay was financed by public authority. The uselessness of such measures was known, which can be seen e. g. in the Caretaker's Handbook of that time and the comments in the patient files. The situation still escalated in some cases (for example by transfer to an adult ward). For a long time, coercive measures against patients were part of everyday life at the children's ward of the Weissenau; the actual figures are suspected to be much higher.

More Satisfying Than Factory Work: An Analysis of Mental Health Nursing Using a Print Media Archive.

The move towards comprehensive nurse training in Australia thirty years ago continues to trouble many of its mental health nurses. It has been viewed as a failure by many and the profession has been judged by some commentators to have lost its preparedness for specialist care. Discourse put forward to support this negative evaluation usually centres on the recruitment of mental health nurses and a limited interest among student nurses to undertake mental health nursing because of their negative opinions towards it. Emerging from a larger ethnographic research project focused on mental health nursing practice in Australia, this article presents an analysis of the profession's current circumstances using historical print media. As we move further from the era of direct entry, specialist training, the article notes the development of assumptions within the profession. These include the idea that mental health nurses received better training in direct entry, specialist programs, and therefore were better prepared for their specialist roles. The article puts forward a critique that challenges this. The article argues the most profound change faced by the profession is the erosion of the mental health nursing identity in Australia. The loss of the stand-alone hospital system, direct entry specialist training, and specialist professional registration have left mental health nursing with a growing uncertainty about itself as the profession evolves into its (mostly) post-mental institution world. At a time when the specialty of mental health nursing is experiencing serious staff shortages throughout the developed world, the article points to the importance of using historical sources to contextualize our present circumstances.

[The long road for psychiatric care in prisons]. / La longue marche des soins psychiatriques en milieu pénitentiaire.

From the 19th century to the present day, the history of psychiatry in prisons has evolved considerably. In parallel with successive laws, codes and articles, psychiatry has gained in structure. From the "medical prison", mental health consultations in every detention centre, the regional medico-psychological services, to today's specially equipped hospital units (UHSA), prisoners receive both preventive care as well as curative treatment.

British nurses' attitudes to electroconvulsive therapy, 1945-2000.

AIM: The aim of the study was to collect and analyse historical material on nurses' attitudes to electroconvulsive therapy in Britain between 1945-2000. BACKGROUND: Electroconvulsive therapy became widely used in Britain from the late 1940s onwards and remains in current use, but became one of the main targets of the 'antipsychiatry' movement of the 1960s and 1970s. DESIGN: A cultural history design was used to recreate the perspectives of mental health nurses in the period under review. METHOD: A range of primary sources including journal articles, textbooks and oral history sources were combined to create a coherent historical account. FINDINGS: The controversy surrounding electroconvulsive therapy created a deep-seated ambivalence towards it among mental health nurses. While a sizeable minority were critical of its use and may have taken steps to avoid involvement with it, most acquiesced in providing the treatment. Recorded incidents of outright refusal to participate are few. CONCLUSION: Mental health nurses' views on electroconvulsive therapy are reflective of the profession's growing knowledge of the use of evidence in debating whether particular therapies should be used.

A modern history of psychiatric-mental health nursing.

This paper discusses the progression of developments in psychiatric-mental health nursing from the 1960s to the present. The 1960s were a time of shortage of psychiatric APRNs, with legislation expanding the availability of mental health services. We find ourselves in a similar time with 7 million new health insurance enrollees, because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The expansion of health insurance coverage comes at a time when some colleges of nursing are closing master's programs in psychiatric-mental health, in lieu of the DNP mandate from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Is history repeating itself?

[(Community) psychiatry, a parenthesis?]. / La psychiatrie (de secteur), une parenthèse ?

Beyond an a priori antagonism between these two notions, alienism and mental health cultivate analogies as to the place to which they assign mental health. Is community psychiatry not therefore simply a parenthesis in the history of psychiatry? The question is raised therefore regarding the place given to subjectivity and complexity. What must be done to ensure that this parenthesis of community psychiatry does not close? It is perhaps a case of making use of the tools which institutional psychotherapy has developed to keep the community psychiatry spirit alive.

Learning constraint. Exploring nurses' narratives of psychiatric work in the early years of French community psychiatry.

This article uses narrative analysis to understand how mental health professionals working in a pilot experiment in community psychiatry in France between 1960 and 1980 made sense of their work experiences. Based on a collection of essays written by these professionals as part of their training as well as on other archival materials, the article explores writing practices in post-war French psychiatry as ways of constructing and negotiating moral commitments to work. The first three sections of the article give some background on mental health nursing in France in the immediate post-war period. The subsequent three sections examine how the professionals elaborated on their experiences in their writings, focusing on three different levels: first, the narrative voice used in the essays; second, the learning processes described by trainees; and finally, the ways in which they negotiated discursively the requirement to do emotionally well at work.

The future in the past: Hildegard Peplau and interpersonal relations in nursing.

Researchers, educators and clinicians have long recognized the profound influence of the mid-twentieth century focus on interpersonal relations and relationships on nursing. Today, in nursing, as well as in medicine and other social sciences, neuroanatomy, neurobiology and neurophysiology have replaced interpersonal dynamics as keys to understanding human behavior. Yet concerns are being raised that the teaching, research and practice of the critical importance of healing relationships have been overridden by a biological focus on the experiences of health and illness. As a way to move forward, we return to Hildegard Peplau's seminal ideas about the transformative power of relationships in nursing. We propose that Peplau's formulations and, in particular, her seminal Interpersonal Relations in Nursing can provide direction. We do not propose that her formulations or her book be simply transposed from the 1950s to today's classroom and clinic. But we do believe that her ideas and writings are dynamic documents containing concepts and derived operations that can be brought to life in clinical practice. Finally, we explore Peplau's transformative idea that nursing is, at its core, an interpersonal process both to acknowledge an idea that has shaped our past and can guide us into our future.

Nurses and subordination: a historical study of mental nurses' perceptions on administering aversion therapy for 'sexual deviations'.

This study aimed to examine the meanings that nurses attached to the 'treatments' administered to cure 'sexual deviation' (SD) in the UK, 1935-1974. In the UK, homosexuality was considered a classifiable mental illness that could be 'cured' until 1992. Nurses were involved in administering painful and distressing treatments. The study is based on oral history interviews with fifteen nurses who had administered treatments to cure individuals of their SD. The interviews were transcribed for historical interpretation. Some nurses believed that their role was to passively follow any orders they had been given. Other nurses limited their culpability concerning administering these treatments by adopting dehumanising and objectifying language and by focussing on administrative tasks, rather than the human beings in need of their care. Meanwhile, some nurses genuinely believed that they were acting beneficently by administering these distinctly unpleasant treatments. It is envisaged that this study might act to reiterate the need for nurses to ensure their interventions have a sound evidence base and that they constantly reflect on the moral and value base of their practice and the influence that science and societal norms can have on changing views of what is considered 'acceptable practice'.

Remembering travels with Phyllis.

Phyllis Noerager Stern lived until she died at 88, not fading away in a nursing home, that place that's not home and where there's no nursing. She would be pleased, though death by fall lacks the drama of death by lion attack that we joked about long ago.

Resilience of institutional culture: mental nursing in a decade of radical change.

Mental nursing has continued to be neglected in the history of psychiatry. This paper considers the impact of a decade of radical developments on the role and outlook of nurses in British mental hospitals during the 1930s. The Mental Treatment Act 1930 introduced voluntary admission for early, supposedly treatable cases, although there was paucity of effective treatment. In the mid-1930s shock therapies, administered with great enthusiasm by asylum doctors, promised to cure insanity by physical means. Although these were important milestones in the progress of psychiatry, for the majority of nurses and patients life continued much as before. Despite advances in training, working conditions and therapeutic activity, the institutional culture of nursing was remarkably resilient to the forces of change.