A new use for videotape in liaison psychiatry: a case from the burn unit

Interviews with patients and staff of the New York Hospital Burn Unit in which they discuss their reactions to a variety of unit milieu stresses were videotaped. These were then edited together and played back at staff conference. This intervention increased staff awareness of unit stresses, facilitated discussion about these stresses among surgeons, nurses, and ancillary staff and enhanced the staff-liaison alliance in ways that other psychiatric liaison techniques failed. The psychologic attributes of film are reviewed in an attempt to account for the special impact of videotape in this liaison psychiatry setting.