Are psych nurses allowed to perform therapy?

[sakiohma]

Is therapy something that only psych nurse practitioners can do or can psych LPN's and RN's also perform therapy?

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

Therapy is provided by graduate-level educated personnel. Psych RNs and LPNs are "therapeutic" without performing therapy.

[Whispera, MSN, RN]

LPNs and RNs run groups but they're educational or medical, usually. That doesn't mean therapeutic issues don't come up at times. When that happens, the nurses deal with what's happening.

Nurses also can spend time talking with patients, and that can be extremely therapeutic. I think it could be considered therapy, depending on what happens, and who's thinking about it.

Only those with an advanced degree can do official "therapy" and only those people can charge for it.

[TerpGal02, ASN]

We do 1:1 interviews with clients and use theraputic communication, but is not official psychotherapy

[Midwest4me]

Our "therapy" at our mental hospital consists of many, demeaning things. In the geriatric program "treatment hall", I've witnessed the patients making a "quilt"; this is accomplished by selecting various colored duct tape and putting on a large (36" x 36") piece of construction paper. It's supposed to be a time for socialization/teamwork, but several of them felt belittled by it. When I've pointed this out to supervisors, I'm told that most of the patients are NOT feeling belittled or offended by the task so the task continues. Other activities for these seniors consist of watching movies. The younger(20s-40s) patients also get to watch movies, play games, use watercolors to paint various pictures on construction paper. If the general public only knew how those tax dollars are being put to use!

[Agrippa]

I'd imagine that if you were to get additional training in psychotherapy through various institutes or if your NP program has good training in psychotherapy then yes. However, much like psychiatry in medicine, it seems as if NP programs are focused on medication management and those that want to learn the art of psychotherapy need to find additional training on their own. I suppose this is similar to other fields in nursing - I never learned how to be a critical care nurse in nursing school. I had to learn it after.

[loriangel14, RN]

I did a placement in school in a large mental health facility and the Practical Nurse that was my preceptor lead all the group therapy sessions for her group of patients.

[brillohead, ADN, RN]

I did a placement in school in a large mental health facility and the Practical Nurse that was my preceptor lead all the group therapy sessions for her group of patients.

But was she "Running Group Sessions" or "Performing Group Therapy"? They may look the same (people sitting in a circle in a room talking), but they are actually considered to be different things.