Nursing care in electroconvulsive therapy

Psychiatric nursing care for the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) patient has evolved from a traditional supportive and adjunctive practice to the current practice of independent and collaborative nursing actions. The nurse's multifaceted role is enacted by providing education and support, performing pretreatment assessments, monitoring the procedure, and observing and interpreting posttreatment patient responses. Areas of future nursing education and research should include the expansion of nursing practice with the ECT patient in the provision of quality nursing care.