Intensive psychiatric training for visiting nurses.

Abstract

S EVERAL YEARS AGO the Visiting Nurse Association of Erie County, New York, arranged for a grant from a local philanthropic organization to obtain psychiatric training for its staff nurses and asked the department of psychiatry at Edward J. Meyer Memorial Hospital in Buffalo to organize the training program. Tilat seemed like a useful community service, but at the outset we were not aware of the potential the program held for teaching our own hospital staff about the community. The Visiting Nurse Association selected two nurses for the training, and I served as the coordinator and supervising psychiatrist. Tile training program began with a one-week orientation period to familiarize the nurses with all aspects of our 100-bed psychiatric service, which serves as an acute receiving facility for the 1,200,000 people of Erie County. The orientation consisted primarily of meetings and discussions with key hospital staff members. At the same time the nurses were enrolled in the class in psychodynamics and psychopathology for sophomore medical students. It met for four hours a week through the entire academic year, and offered lectures, case demonstra tions, and supervised patient interviews. One of tile nurses came to work and study at the hospital for the first six months of the year and the other for the second six months. The hospital experience was divided into two parts. The first was a six-week assignment to a treatment team on the women’s inpatient service. During that time the nurse became familiar with the workings of the psychiatric ward, and had an opportunity to see representative types of psychopathology. She also participated in ward rounds, and met twice a week with me to discuss specific cases. During her remaining four and half months at the hospital she worked directly under my supervision, and attended daily rounds on the inpatient service to maintain contact with referring physicians and nurses. She began accepting referrals for home treatment of patients being discharged from the inpatient