Process Recording...

Nursing Students Student Assist

Published

For a clinical assignment (that is due next week) we have to submit a "process recording" - not an actual recording but a typed hard copy based on therapeutically communicating with our patients. The textbook that we use for the class is Kozier & Erb's Fundamentals of Nursing: Concepts, Process and Practice and there is an example of a process recording but it is vague compared to how they want us to do it. They want us to have six interchanges. This is the example in our syllabus:

Client: (verbal) I don't like being here! (non-verbal) angry facial expression

Nurse: (verbal) You don't like being here?

(non-verbal) looking at him, sitting at eye level; soft voice

(verbal/non-verbal technique) attending, reflection, proxemics, occulesics, paralinguistics

(purpose & evaluation): verbally is to help him expand. non-verbally is to help him feel relaxed and that I am interesed. evaluation successful - client continued.

(modification) (when not successful what can student do to modify the action to be successful)

That is an example of one interchange.

The first problem I have is that my patient that I have been with the past 3 weeks doesn't really have "anything wrong" - she is a peppy happy-go-lucky lady who loves to talk to just about anyone and about anything. she loves being in her facility and always talks about how great the people are to her - everything is so positive.

Has anyone here done a process recording and maybe offer some guidance? Or does anybody here know of any websites or other sources that I can check into for some more process recording samples? Any help will be greatly appreciated! :nurse::bow:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

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.

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.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

Thank you, Daytonite! You're seriously a life saver :bow:

and I thought my school was really the only one that does process recordings because I never saw any posts on allnurses about them...but I guess I'm not alone. Thank you again! :nurse:

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

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.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Thank you, Daytonite! You're seriously a life saver :bow:

and I thought my school was really the only one that does process recordings because I never saw any posts on allnurses about them...but I guess I'm not alone. Thank you again! :nurse:

Nope, you aren't alone. I had to do a process recording too. Mine was for my clinical rotation through the locked psych unit. Very interesting because my patient had multiple psych dxs.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

the only time we (my class) did these was in psych....and many of them ended up being....hmmm quite ...hmmm fictional.....but i am not a BSN,

only hospital trained RN

Up Vote Up Vote ×
the only time we (my class) did these was in psych....and many of them ended up being....hmmm quite ...hmmm fictional.....but i am not a BSN,

only hospital trained RN

gosh I really hope I don't have to do a process recording for my psych rotation lol...but so far I haven't heard anything about that so who knows.

I think I'm going to have to improvise mine a bit...

Up Vote Up Vote ×

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

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.
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.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

im in a ADN program, the first week in clinical we didnt get to touch our patients ..we worked on communication. Believe it or not but its helped out SO many patient-student nurse relationships that we find patients open up more to student nurses than their primary nurse! I think its excellent, and it gets easier with practice. Practice using the textbook examples of facilitating communication with your family/friends. You'll learn a lot.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Hospital Education Coordinator.

OP, did you ever ask the patient why she is in the facility? Why does she think she was admitted and what does she know about her therapy? Does she have any goals related to being discharged? Sounds like she needs more insight. I doubt she is there for vacation.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

The OP posted the question in 2008.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Add a Comment