A narrative history of psychiatric / mental health nursing in theasylum / mental hospital system in Ireland from 1940 to 1970.‘Always remember they are some mother’s child’

Walk (1961) stated that a history of psychiatry that did not include the history of mental nurses was incomplete. Nursing in our mental health system in Ireland from a historical perspective has not been examined. The purpose of this research is to achieve narrative accounts of life, nursing care and changes across time from 1940 to 1970 from nurses who worked within the asylum system. The origins and history of nursing in this context is required to amplify the role and contribution of nurses which has rarely been described. The research will provide insight and information into life within the institutions in the mid-1900s, along with the social and psychiatric presentations of patients, the treatment modalities available, the role of those employed in nursing roles and the leadership within the sector. The historical roots of Irish psychiatric nursing have remained subsumed within the realms of the history of psychiatry. The majority of publications in this area with a few exceptions tend to focus on the structural and legislative frameworks that established firstly the Asylum system and subsequently the community approach to care. A qualitative design was chosen to conduct a narrative inquiry which involved the conduction of interviews with nurses who worked within the asylum/institution system between 1940 and 1970 nationally. Grounded in interpretive hermeneutics, narrative inquiry involves the gathering of these nurses’ narratives: oral and visual— and focusing on the meanings that people ascribe to their experiences. The findings indicate that the history of care for the mentally ill carried out within asylums and later mental institutions provided an institutional base for the establishment of the profession of nursing. Nursing was introduced into and inherited a culture influenced by the patriarchal structures which existed at that time. The study highlights how the profession of psychiatric nursing was socially constructed. It provides an insight into the context of care, the impact of social stigma on the profession, a lack of professional voice and how nurses strived to develop professional agency. The development of the profession and their influence on the preparation for and transition of care to the community is also captured. How through their practice with patients, these nurses made the asylum walls porous and contributed to the construction of a bridge between asylum care and community care, to lay the foundations for contemporary community mental health care in Ireland. The study defines the ontogenesis of psychiatric nursing.