Mental Health Inservice Eduction

I worked psych for 10 years, left for 5 and now am back as Staff Developer. This is a really tough group of nurses to get through to, not that I found an easy one yet(must have to do with our need to assert ourselves. First question is exactly what is the Resident population mix in your facility?

If you have a gero-psych unit, you might start with an inservice on geriatic medical problems. You wouldn't be stepping of the sensitive "psych" toes and you could show how knowledgable you are.

Another approach is to have one on something like problem of Hep C in a psych population and at that one, ask for their input on what is needed.

Or enlist a friendly nurse's help, ask what s/he thinks is needed, or what has been successful in the past.

Lastly, you can go through the old records and see what got the best attendence in the past. Look at those lesson plans for ideas on subjects, the way things are presented, etc. (Here, records have to be kept for 4 years. When I get rid of old stuff, I always look at the lesson plans and keep any that might be useful to me in the future.) Good luck, hope this helps.