Interacting style towards patients hospitalized for mental illness

Interaction style is so vital to the patient because when asked about their perceptions of nursing care, patients almost exclusively described the nurses’ interactive style and not what task she was doing. Nurses often express anxiety and lack of confidence regarding communicating with patients diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. Nurses are the high resource person who spends time with the patients round the clock and the work of the nurses is generally highly regarded by patients Aim: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of interacting skill training program to the nurses working towards patients with mental illness. Materials and Methods: A quantitative Quasi-experimental study with two groups was adopted for the study. A total of 17 subjects in experimental group and 15 in control group were selected using convenient sampling technique to complete the self administered “Interacting Skill Scale for Mental Health Nurses” questionnaire. Results: The experimental group subjects had significantly high score in all five interacting style dimensions from the control group at either p<0.05 or <0.001. Conclusion: Providing adequate training in the interacting skill for the nurses working with mentally ill patients can significantly improve their interacting pattern towards the patients more therapeutically.