ABSTRACT
Shock therapies supplanted patients' potential for recovery with reliance on medical expertise, to which mental nursing was a mere accessory. Nursing practice was undoubtedly affected by the Mental Treatment Act and the introduction of shock therapy, but the impact on doctors was more significant. Perspectives of nurses on the radical developments of the 1930s were scarcely considered in professional literature and in the management of the institution. Specific medical instructions were to be followed for each patient, and the nursing day was punctuated by regular monitoring and recording of pulse, temperature, nutritional intake, weight and sleep. Transcending such differences was a distinct culture of mental nursing, with staff striving to maintain control in a challenging environment of overcrowding, understaffing and interminable routine. Psychiatric literature was dominated by the new treatments, but there was no journal specifically for mental nursing, and opportunities to attend conferences were scarce.
