The Centre for Psychiatric Nursing Research and Practice : promoting excellence in psychiatric nursing

The Centre for Psychiatric Nursing Research and Practice (CPNRP), is funded by the Department ofHuman Services Victoria, as an initiative to support psychiatric nurses throughout the State ofVictoria. At the time of the CPNRPs inception in 1999, psychiatric nursing had been affected bywidespread changes in the delivery of mental health services and nursing education in Victoria. Theaim of this paper is to provide an overview of the development of the CPNRP and how thisdevelopment reflected the significant issues of the time. The CPNRP introduced a number ofprograms and other initiatives in response to six primary issues: recruitment, retention, leadership,professional development, research: practice gap and communication.