ABSTRACT
The role and function of the mental health nurse within the Accident and Emergency department (A and E) has generated considerable interest within both general and mental health nursing. A growing body of literature has addressed itself to this specialist area of work, in particular to the functions of psychiatric liaison, consultation, assessment, and care planning and management. The government’s most recent review of mental health nursing regarded developments in liaison nursing, across a range of non-psychiatric settings, as an important area for advanced nursing practice (Department of Health – DoH, 1994). Significantly, perhaps, the review gave no formal consideration to the specific scope of practice, qualifications or organisational requirements. In the same year, however, the Royal College of Psychiatry’s Liaison Psychiatry Special Interest Group did publish the UK’s first examination of the need for, as well as the scope and configuration of, liaison psychiatry services (Benjamin et al., 1994).
