Patient centered teaching: a future role for the psychiatric nurse teacher?

It was suggested by Reynolds & Cormack (1982), that psychiatric nursing skills could be taught more realistically, if there was a greater concentration of teaching resources in the clinical areas, in order to make fuller use of the learning opportunities to which learners are exposed. They expressed the view that this was essential in order to clarify the psychiatric nurse's role and to shift the emphasis of psychiatric nurse education away from psychomotor skills to interpersonal skills. This paper describes a trial teaching programme which was designed to gain access to, and utilize, 'live' patient centered teaching opportunities in the clinical area more effectively. It involved the writer and four nurse learners, who were allocated to a long-term ward during a 12-week psychiatric nursing module within a comprehensive modular system of nurse training. The main teaching method involved structured interaction with the patients.