The effect of medication management training on community mental health nurse's clinical skills

Background. There is evidence that compliance therapy improves treatment adherence and clinical outcomes in patients with schizophrenia. Community Mental Health Nurses (CMHNs) are ideally placed to deliver compliance therapy but require training to develop the necessary clinical skills.Aim. To explore whether a brief medication management training package is effective in developing the compliance therapy skills of CMHNs.Method. The study had a within subjects repeated measures design. A representative sample of 52 CMHNs entered the study. They performed a role-play task pre- and post-training that was videotaped and blind rated by an independent rater using the Cognitive Therapy Scale (CTS). Knowledge was assessed pre- and post-training using a knowledge about medication management questionnaire. Trainees also completed a satisfaction with training questionnaire at the end of the course.Results. Following training there was a statistically significant improvement in mean scores on the primary measure of skills, the CTS (mean pre-training CTS-total score 13.88, mean post-training CTS-total score 31.12; p<0.01). There was also a significant categorical improvement in the number of trainees who demonstrated satisfactory skills. Knowledge about medication management was significantly improved and trainees reported that training was acceptable and relevant to their clinical practice.Conclusions. In this uncontrolled study training improved the medication management skills of CMHNs.