Hi everyone

I went to a psychological medicine conference last week and there is some
innovative work being done with RN's (RGN's in UK).

A specialist registrar did a survey did a survey of all a&e departments in
London and 83% asked for a psychologist to be attached to the psychiatric
liaison team.

However a new innovation on the rise now is where a psychiatric triage , ie
a psychiatric assessment is done by a general nurse not a psych nurse-the
triage nurse on duty-there is a standardised triage scale for this in psych
terms and nurses are enjoying their roles and get on well with the psych doctors
as they can refer direct when necessary without the psych liaison team who may
be tied up elsewhere and it can be distressing for patients/staff to wait.

I am waiting for the power point slides to come through then I will get them
up on the site.

The best department in London which had the most funding was St Thomas's
where the liaison psych team have a 24/7 medical input, an "I" grade nurse
specialist/manager and a toxicology team as a specialist toxicology unit is
based
at Tommy's anyway interested in self-harm. They have good skilled clinical
supervison and toxicology ward rounds as well!

There are many a&e nurses who don't enjoy psych work however learning the
basic triage skills in mental health has shown that it makes the a&e and acute
medical wards etc a less stressful environment for everyone.

Fenella


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]