Working in partnership: a collaborative approach to care. The review of mental health nursing.

The first major review of psychiatric mental health nursing in England since 1968 is now complete. The review was announced in 1992 by the Department of Health, at the Royal College of Nursing Annual Congress. A steering group was convened to conduct a review and its report was published in 1994. At the outset, the multidisciplinary group aimed to identify requirements for skilled nursing responsive to patient need, into the next century. The chairman of the review summarizes in this paper the main issues that characterize its findings. The 42 recommendations are abstracted at the end of this paper, by subject headings from the published report.