Nursing process in mental health nursing; not a straightforward process - A mental health student nurse account.

Mental health nursing has moved on from the days of asylum but what is obvious today, is the objective approach adopted by government to allocate resources i.e. payment by result. This is tantamount to limited resources commissioned for meeting the vast unmet needs of service users, bearing in mind the figure spent on yearly basis in addressing physical health conditions. This article is a mental health student nurse's account of the tremendous expectations placed on qualified nurses and the emphasis on the need for genuine promotion of recovery in service users. Through reflection on experiences gained in different clinical settings, as a student nurse, author raised suggestions for the betterment of the nurse education curriculum and highlighted what is expected of qualified nurses in contemporary mental health service delivery.