Development of qualified nurses' psychological skills: an evaluation

A series of workshops was run by two paediatric clinical psychologists for children's nurses in five London teaching hospitals. These were evaluated immediately after completion and indicated that nurses had found the workshops helpful.

To determine whether the benefits described by attendees immediately after workshops were being realised in the clinical setting at three months.

A qualitative exploration of the current experiences of the nurses was conducted. Responses to open questions on evaluation forms were transcribed and analysed using a content analysis approach.

Participants identified that they benefited greatly from the workshops. Themes concerning the nature of benefits to emerge included: having greater awareness and understanding of the feelings and behaviours of others, feeling more confident at work and also finding it useful to hear about the experiences of others.

Nurses value and benefit from psychologically oriented training workshops. Further research around the benefits perceived by patients and managers would add weight to this argument.