Psych Nutrition Psycho Educational Group

[inyellowcoats]

I'm currently in my Psych rotation and I need to run an educational group on the inpatient unit that I'm working on. The topic needs to be on nutrition. I was wondering if anyone had any interesting/fun ideas to make the group exciting, beneficial and informative. I want to make sure that the patient's socialize a lot, learn something and have fun.

I was planning on playing some sort of game, maybe like a Jeopardy, but I'm having difficulty with deciding it that would be appropriate or not considering all of the patient's cognitive abilities while being on the Psych unit.

Any ideas/suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

[EDRN1091]

The tough thing about running nursing group on an inpatient unit is that not all patients meet the standard criteria for a therapeutic "group" setting. Check with your instructor prior to putting together any type of game. The goal of group is to have all people interact so learn the patients names before hand and their diagnosis / presenting symptoms before you have the group. What worked in my inpatient group was hand outs. The unit had them on hand and we distributed them to everyone attending. It's really key to maintain control of the conversation. Stick to the therapeutic goal and respectfully halt any conversation that becomes inappropriate. Be direct and calm, but firm. There should be great info on group therapy in your psych nursing text, or on any nursing research database. Good luck! I enjoyed nursing group during my psych inpatient rotation, it's a little nerve racking at first but if you can get patients engaged its really a great way to learn about your patients.

[MrChicagoRN, RN]

Games are a great way to do it.

Maybe something like who wants to be a millionaire, with multiple choice answers. Maybe form teams. Then, after reading out the question to the group, allow everyone to voice their guess at the right answer, before revealing the correct answer and awarding a point for correct answers