Assessing the interpersonal skills of student psychiatric nurses with patients simulated by actors

Abstract

A procedure is described by which the skills and attitudes of student psychiatric nurses in their interpersonal relationships with patients are assessed at the end of their training. Each nurse is presented with a simulated ward situation in which the parts of patients are played by actors of the Casualties Union. Her performance is evaluated by the combined ratings of five experienced nursing tutors. Relations of the assessments to other assessments and characteristics of the nurses are detailed and discussed. It is concluded that the procedure merits development for assessment, training, and fundamental research in regard to nurse-patient relationships.