Teaching nurses therapeutic conversation: a pilot study

A 2‐day video‐based workshop developed for teaching psychiatrists was used to instruct learner psychiatric nurses in the conversational model of psychotherapy. A small evaluation was carried out to assess the effects of the teaching on the performance of these nurses in interviewing other learner nurses who role‐played people with common emotional difficulties. A randomized groups design was used comparing the interview behaviour of experimental and control groups before and after the workshops, and at 3 months follow‐up. Considered as a pilot the study was instructive, although only one significant result emerged. The conversational model of psychotherapy and the teaching workshops devised and used previously with psychiatrists can be used by nurses, including those still in training.