[The nurse's role in a child psychiatric unit of St. Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece].

Abstract

The role of the nurse in a child psychiatric unit is defined by the systems: a. Nurse-child b. Nurse-child-family c. Nurses-children d. Nurses-disciplinary team (a). In these systems the nurse: assesses the child, identifies the problems, sets the goals, provides care, educates the child. (b). Reinforces the parents' role, intervenes to help the relationships in the family. (c). Facilitates the team interactions and also the healthy behaviour in the peer group team, provides secure relationships. The nurse also functions as a reinforcement which leads to maturity. (d). The nurse is an equal member in the therapeutic team, is the link for communication and the main source for information. He participates in the organization and management of the team. Many nurses are specialized in psychiatric and child psychiatric nursing. All nurses believe in the continuing education and they attend various seminars. Through the activities in the unit the nurses have an update information on the subject of their work. Supervisions with educational character have been established for the nursing team. The nurse works on the base of the "special nurse-child" relationship and has the full responsibility of the child. The special nurse fulfills the nursing history. Systematic observation and evaluation are performed by the special nurse: he identifies the problems, sets the goals, formulates a programme, writes down and evaluates the results which means that he works with the implementation of the nursing process.