Mental health ideologies of psychiatric nurses.

Students in graduate programs of psychiatric nursing across the United States were surveyed in terms of their individual commitment to three major mental health ideologies--community mental health ideology, psychotherapetic ideology, and somatotherapeutic ideology. In contrast to earlier research, which had indicated that psychiatric nurses are ideologically neutral, it was found in the present study that as a group these 386 young psychiatric nurses were more committed to community mental health ideology than to the other two psychiatric orientations measured.