Process Recording...

my bsn program was heavy on communication skills and that was 20 years ago, kiddo. we had to do a process recording of a minimum 15 minute therapeutic conversation with a patient each quarter in each clinical class. many of us carried a pocket recorder and taped the conversations to help us remember the conversations which was one reason why the written write ups ended up being p-a-g-e-s long. these were analyses of our skills (not)! ha! ha! unfortunately, i don't have any of mine. they were saved on the old floppy discs for an apple ii and printed out on a matrix dot printer i had thrown out long ago. they are still done in many programs. here are weblinks to information on how some programs want a process recording done and on therapeutic communication concepts. it includes a template on how to organize one as well as directions.

• https://allnurses.com/forums/2489678-post39.html

as you struggle with yours, know that you are not alone. best of luck to you. this will make you a better nurse. i said so.

when we got our class syllabus every quarter and a process recording and care plan were listed as required components you should have heard (1) the groans, and (2) the haggling to try to get changes in what was required of them. no one liked doing process recordings and the hardest ones were the ones we had to do with psych patients. we were in a locked psych unit and our patients were schizophrenics with full blown acute symptoms. it was really hard to understand them sometimes because they were so psychotic and could only focus their attention for very short periods of time.

we had different assignments with process recording as i recall. i specifically recall having to do a clarification of a teaching and an exploration of feelings about their diagnosis. i don't remember the other 3.

i'm sure daytonite's info will help a lot, i just wanted to say that i feel your pain. lol i just finished my psych rotation and we had to do process recordings. ugh! we had to do 16 segments, each segment being a statement made by either me or the pt. we also had to add in non-verbal stuff. we had to tell whether our communication was therapeutic or not and what style it was, and if it was non-therapeutic, what we should've said. we also had to have 3 defense mechanisms for the pt and 3 for us and 3 analysis statements footnoted from the book on why our statement was a good technique to use. it was a pain! ours was a 30 minute conversation with another student writing down as much as they could. give me a head to toe assessment anyday!! lol

that pretty much describes what ours were except that a second student wasn't involved. the process recording was more of an analysis of what we did or didn't do right. basically, you rip your conversation apart. you need the other information posted on those links above to help describe not only the responses the patient and you gave, but the ones you should have given. and, you don't want them to be too fictionalized because the instructors know you are not perfect at talking to patients therapeutically. you are going to make mistakes and say the wrong things. you just have to clean it up on the written process recording you hand in.

our psych ones were hard because we were in a locked facility with schizophrenics. my patient stuttered and talked using word salad a lot. it was often hard to understand what he was saying let along get it on paper. my program was heavy into communication. we had to take a communication class as a pre-requisite to getting into the nursing classes. we did process recordings all through the nursing program. you speak therapeutically with all patients and people you work with, not just psych patients. looking back, it was good preparation for my career. i've seen too many people with "foot in mouth" syndrome.