The ego competency model of psychiatric nursing: theoretical overview and clinical application

The Ego Competency Model (ECM) of Psychiatric Nursing provides a focus for the role and function of the psychiatric nurse. The ECM offers a framework for assessing the patient's level of functioning in terms of certain ego strengths and deficits. Emphasizing a balanced health/illness focus, the model identifies three major goals of psychiatric nursing. The ECM scale allows nurses to rate the client on specific ego functions in order to address patient care problems arising from deficits in ego functioning. Ego functions that are systematically assessed with the ECM include impulse control, reality testing, judgment, mood, object relations, activities of daily living, competency, self-perception, thought process, and stimulus barrier.