The effects of emergency psychiatric care training for emergency department nurses

INTRODUCTION: This study was designed to examine the effect of training on emergency psychiatric care on the thoughts, feelings, and attitude of emergency nurses toward patients with mental disorders.
METHODS: This was a quasi-experimental, cross-sectional, single-group study that included a pretest, posttest, and follow-up evaluation. The study was conducted between May 2018 and March 2019 with 30 nurses (68.18%) who participated in a training program for nurses working in the emergency department of a university hospital in Türkiye. The Emergency Psychiatric Care training program consisted of approximately 19 hours. A weekend session was offered for 5 consecutive weeks in order to make it accessible to all of the nurses. The feelings, thoughts, and attitudes of the nurses toward patients with mental disorders were evaluated immediately before and after the training, as well as 3 months after the program. Parametric and nonparametric tests were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: The findings revealed a statistically significant increase in the nurses’ level of knowledge and self-confidence related to emergency psychiatric care after participating in the training program, and their workload perception decreased (p<0.05). The nurses' average job satisfaction perception score also increased (p>0.05). The nurses exhibited a positive change in their thoughts and feelings toward psychiatric care after training, but importantly, the nurses’ attitude, a more long-standing measure, did not change significantly.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The training program had a positive impact on the nurses' level of knowledge related to providing psychiatric care, as well as their workload perception, self-confidence, feelings, and thoughts. This is valuable, however, regular training and other adjustments to working conditions will be necessary to establish a true attitude change.