Introduction: Development of nursing as a profession is a long-term process. In a short period few influential people managed to change psychiatric mental – health nursing into skill full profession, which is now performed by professionals with high education and are enabling individualistic approach for patients with mental disorders. In 1841 Dorothea Dix, accepted giving a Bible study in all women prison, where she noticed bad conditions, which had to be changed immediately. Linda Richards was first professionally trained nurse, who understood the importance of education and training of nurses. She wanted establishment that will contribute and satisfy the needs of households, hospitals and population. Because she knew how important it is to have educated medical staff she established nursing schools and programs in the United States of America and later in the world. Psychiatric nursing in 21st century is performed by highly educated medical staff, which enables holistic, quality nursing and is individually modified. In 1952, Hildegard Peplau published nursing theory, Interpersonal relations. Aim: The aim of the diploma thesis is to touch on most important historical events in psychiatry and psychiatric nursing, give a historical overview of the most influential nurses (Dorothea Linde Dix, Hildegard Peplau, Linda Richards) and include one of the most important theories - Interpersonal relations. Method: A descriptive research method is being used, which was based on the literature review of relevant sources such as: articles, books and doctors’dissertations. All research articles and chapters from books describe fundamentals of psychiatric nursing development and include important people that influenced development of psychiatric nursing. Articles were found in different publications such as: Journal of psychiatric mental health nursing, Nursing inquiry, Archives of psychiatric nursing, Perspectives in psychiatric care and some basic information was being found in Obzornik zdravstvene nege. The search was conducted from February 2016 to December 2016 and was limited to the Slovene and English published sources. Due to the nature of research, there is no limitation as to the year of publication of the sources used. The oldest literature is from 1987. Discussion and conclusions: In order to better understand the current psychiatric nursing practice, it is important to be acquainted with it is historical development. It is also necessary to link the theoretical basis and clinical practice in order to deliver quality care to persons afflicted with mental illness, using the holistic and patient-centred nursing approach.
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