The role of a mental health nurse in an adult environment is to build effective relationships with people using mental health services, and their relatives and carers. Success comes from establishing relationships of trust quickly and helping individuals understand their situation and achieve the best possible outcome.
This resource provides a peer-reviewed Clinical Pocket Reference for mental health nurses working in acute mental health settings. It focuses primarily on the fundamentals of mental
health nursing care and provides a reference to orientate ethical and effective
mental health nursing practice dealing with acute episodes. The aim of this resource
is to consider how we as nurses can respond to people’s lived experiences when in acute inpatient settings, providing compassionate and effective care. It is not a
a manual of nursing responses to psychiatric classifications.

For registered nurses, student nurses, nurse associates

This Clinical Pocket Reference resource provides key information to help you provide
person-centred and recovery-oriented care. It provides a succinct and easily understood
guide to patient assessment, treatment, and care and focuses on the acute and
emergency aspects of mental health care for working-age adults.

For educators and preceptors

This resource contains key clinical information you will be able to share with your
pre and post reg colleagues to further advance their skills and learning. The scenarios
and reflections will be useful to aid discussion on a range of topics mental health
nurses encounter every day. As a digital resource it can play an essential role in
providing rapid access to the knowledge you need in your educational role.

This resource includes:
• scenarios and reflections to contextualise the content
• online glossary of key terms
• QR code to take you to further reading and study
• availability as an eBook