Evaluating the effect of assessment education with community psychiatric nurses using a file audit tool

Within public mental health services in Australia, community mental health nurses are often the first point of contact for people presenting with mental health problems. Community mental health nurses are responsible for determining appropriate triage and assessing need for treatment. Community mental health staff identified a need to improve skills in assessment and documentation of psychiatric symptoms. This collaborative study sought to develop an educational package, based on Present State Examination-9, for initial assessment, and a reliable file audit tool to evaluate the effectiveness of the education. Twenty initial mental health assessments completed by twenty different community mental health nurses were audited approximately one month prior to, and two months after, attendance at the education programme. The audit indicated that the documentation of assessments improved in all aspects, although the most significant differences were achieved in recording history, mental state and treatment plan. These items were the main items emphasised in the education programme. It is suggested that the Present State Examination-9 provides a useful base for teaching clinicians how to incorporate the documentation of comprehensive and precise information into assessment formats and treatment planning and that the file audit tool, when linked with an assessment format provides a useful way of evaluating self and peer assessment documentation.