The introduction of undergraduate comprehensive nursing education in Victoria, Australia,
during the 1990s has resulted in significant changes in undergraduate preparation
for psychiatric/mental health nursing. Comprehensive programs became charged with
the responsibility of preparing graduates to provide care for people experiencing
a mental illness across a broad range of health-care settings, as well as providing
a pathway for graduates with an interest in specialist practice in this field. The
aim of this article is to clearly articulate the issues associated with psychiatric/mental
health nursing education at the undergraduate level, including prevalence of mental
illness, the inadequacy of psychiatric/mental health nursing theory and practice at
undergraduate level, the negative attitudes of students toward this field of practice,
and the subsequent failure of nursing education and practice initiatives to provide
a clear mechanism for specialization in this important area of nursing practice. Throughout
the article, the distinction between generalist and specialist preparation is argued
and accompanied by a call for nursing education to recognize and address the issues
associated with both domains.
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