Assessing the side-effects of antipsychotic drugs: a survey of CPN practice

The provision of community-based care for people with serious and enduring mental health problems requires an approach that combines drug therapy, psychological interventions and skills training. Mental health nurses are being required to place more emphasis on their work with this client group. It has been suggested that community psychiatric nurses (CPNs) will require training in appropriate skills to work with the seriously mentally ill. While the training of CPNs to use psychological intervention strategies has received limited attention, the area of medication management, including the detection of side-effects, is relatively unexplored. Community psychiatric nurses' practice with clients on antipsychotic medication was investigated. This paper reports selected findings on the assessment of medication side-effects and CPNs' attitude to this aspect of their role. Fifty CPNs in three health districts completed a self-administered questionnaire. The results showed that the CPNs were supervising the medication of large numbers of clients. They reported that their training had adequately prepared them to assess clients for medication side-effects and that this was being done frequently. They also felt that their reports of side-effects influence the prescribers' decisions on medication when clients are reviewed. However, the data also suggested that CPNs were only monitoring their clients for three to four side-effects and that they held an unfavourable attitude towards their involvement with medication.