The training and role of nurse-therapists in a general hospital's psychiatric unit.

The author's discuss their experience using nurses as therapists on a small unit at St. Joseph's Hospital, a general hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. They describe the training of the first nurse-therapists and the three-level training system established to make the program self-sustaining. The nurse-therapist system is now used on several psychiatric units in the hospital. Problems in role relationships and schedules occurred, but the authors, noting the patient-care, economic, and staff benefits, believe that the system would be especially useful in small inpatient units.