Mental health articles

A psychiatric patient may display bizarre behavior during a psychiatric episode. Bizarre behavior can invoke a nontherapeutic response from the psychiatric nurse when the psychiatric nurse reacts intuitively to the patient’s bizarre behavior and sends an inappropriate nonverbal message to the patient. It is important that the psychiatric nurse avoid responses that are barriers to […]

A patient’s psychiatric disorder can cause barriers to effective communication with a patient. The psychiatric nurse must employ techniques that overcome those barriers to engage the patient in therapeutic communication. Here are some tips to help communicate with patients with specific psychiatric disorders. Delusion: A patient who has delusions has irrational beliefs but believes their […]

A barrier to communication is something that impairs transmitting the message or receiving the message for either the psychiatric nurse or the patient. A goal of therapeutic communication is to avoid barriers to communication. Avoiding barriers to communication is challenging since many of them are natural responses most people use in a conversation. Therefore, the […]

Therapeutic communication techniques are methods the psychiatric nurse can use to communicate with the patient so that the communication focuses on addressing the patient’s clinical problems. A goal of therapeutic communication is for the patient to have the opportunity to express themself freely with the psychiatric nurse. The psychiatric nurse must engage in therapeutic communication […]

Therapeutic communication is effective if the psychiatric nurse follows a communication process that fosters a therapeutic relationship between the psychiatric nurse and the patient. Here are steps to follow: Introduce yourself by name and title to the patient. Ask the patient how they would like to be addressed. Recognize that your nonverbal communication greatly influences […]