Mary C. Townsend own words: I have loved psychiatric nursing since the 1st day of my psychiatric nursing course in college. I knew right away that it would be my specialty. I taught psychiatric nursing for more than 16 years, so many my teaching materials and experience went into Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing: Concepts of Care in Evidence-Based Practice. I endeavored to provide students, instructors and practicing nurses with a textbook that is comprehensive enough to fully answer the question “What do psychiatric nurses do?” in a language that can be understood by all.