Clinical audit of behaviour therapy training of nurses

In health care training, professional examinations of competence test trainees' knowledge rather than their actual contribution to the improvement of patients' health. Clinical training programmes have the ultimate aim of improving patients' health, but rarely measure their success in attaining it. This paper provides an analysis of the results of clinical outcome for 2,032 patients treated during eight consecutive English National Board 650 courses, in which 68 nurse behaviour therapist trainees were trained at the Maudsley Hospital from 1978-91. The outcome of 668 patients treated in three recent courses (1987-91) is compared with that of 1,384 patients treated in five earlier courses (1978-86). Measures and diagnostic categories were similar over the whole study period. The trainees in 1987-91 achieved a similar health gain for most of their patients as did their counterparts in 1979-86, but this was achieved over a shorter time spent with each patient, and with greater effect in patients diagnosed as obsessive ruminators. These efficiency gains seem to reflect the incorporation into recent training of treatment advances in anxiety disorders.