How to run a group?

[Lisaliz]

Ive been a Nurse for about two years. Started in long term care and now am brand new to psych nursing. I was only trained two days and am now on my own. One of the things we have to sometimes as part of the job is run Groups. Only I kind of have no clue what to say or do. We do have whats called MHS, who are basically CNAs and they mostly run groups but they often have a reference book on what they can talk about an do for groups. Some of the things that come up is Medication, Healthy living, Life skills.....I just dont know how to go about it. Any ideas?

[Lurkndmurk, ADN, RN]

following

[maggie0, BSN, RN]

Handouts are your friend. This is a great website for materials: https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheets

Basically, come up with a topic and a short spiel, and hopefully the patients will do the rest. I did one the other day on "Positive Traits"-- I had the patients look at a list and circle traits they believed they had. Then I asked them how they felt when doing it. We ended up talking about how hard it is to accept compliments, how they wished they had certain traits, how mental illness changes how you interact with the world, the difference between a value and a trait, etc. Include a written activity for them to do, too: say, write about an experience when they felt "confident" or "compassionate," and then have them share them. If you have a quiet group, do the activity yourself so you can share if no one volunteers.

Worse comes to worst (ie totally untalkative group) have them read a worksheet aloud and add your own commentary after each paragraph. Then have them write a journal entry at the end. Playing nutrition bingo or watching TED talks might also be possibilities, depending on your facility.

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

I run at least one group a day on the adolescent psych unit where I am charge. Typically this is a community group that goes over unit rules and expectations. I also do a goal setting group once a week. Have a plan of what you want to communicate and how. All patient populations are different on some acute adult units if everyone keeps their cloths on and no fist fights break-out it's a good group.