Nurses working in all settings must understand the difference between mental health and mental illness . Nurses will come across clients in various stages of the mental health continuum in every setting, age group, and community.

Developing therapeutic nurse-client relationship s is a core element of the scope of the psychiatric-mental health nursing practice Familiarity with the many risk and protective factors for mental illness is an important part of the nursing process in caring for individuals with potential or diagnosed mental health disorders.

mental health — state of well-being in which individuals realize their own abilities, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to their community. mental illness — health condition involving changes in emotion, thinking, or behavior (or a combination of these) associated with emotional distress and problems functioning in social, work, or…. client — feeling in order to determine the effectiveness of the treatment plan. nursing assessment s — an important part of nursing practice.