Development of child and adolescent psychiatric nursing practice in Korea, 1980-2000.

Problem: Although the need for mental health services for children and youth is on the rise in Korea, there are no data available regarding the current status of psychiatric nurses working with children and adolescents.

Methods: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze questionnaires from 324 respondents.

Findings: Only 5% of psychiatric nurses in Korea are working at child and adolescent-specific programs. The level of nurses' roles and functions vary from simple to specialized.

Conclusions: More effort should be put into networking among nurses to exchange updated information and to share nursing strategies and strengthen college education for further specialization and expansion of nursing roles in the various settings.