Part of a three-volume document, this volume is concerned with providing source data about the activities of mental health nursing personnel as these activities relate to patient care, and contains abstracts of more than 4,000 critical behaviors of psychiatric nurses in 50 psychiatric hospitals, general hospitals with psychiatric units, and comprehensive mental health centers throughout the country. The abstracts were derived from reports of actual observations by mental health practitioners and were reported as examples of either highly effective or highly ineffective care. Abstracts have been organized under six major areas: response of staff to patients' maladaptive behavior, staff-initiated therapeutic intervention, physical health and safety of patients and staff, effective interpersonal relations with patients, management activities, and motivation and responsibility. Each of the six major areas is further organized according to an area description and a category description. Incidents were reported for both nurses and attendants in almost every subcategory, supporting the emerging role of all nursing personnel as a therapeutic one; however, nurses more often exhibited supervising and directing behaviors. This volume, along with volumes 1 and 3, is intended for use in basic, preservice, and continuing education. (EA)