The ability of a select group of nurses to assess drug-induced movement disorder in an elderly person: a pilot study.

The purpose of this pilot study was to demonstrate the effectiveness of preparing long-term care nurses without previous education in movement disorder assessment to make reliable assessments. A nurse practitioner-led educational intervention was utilized. A balanced pretest-posttest design was used to evaluate the development of assessment skills in two different comparison groups (n = 12). Both groups received videotaped instruction in drug-induced movement disorder assessment. One group received additional training: an in-person evaluation of a hospital inpatient. Data were collected using the Diskinesia Identification System: Condensed User Scale (DISCUS) evaluations of videotape case studies before and after each of two sequential educational interventions. The two-tailed t-test was utilized to evaluate significant differences in mean total DISCUS scores for the pretest and two posttests of the two groups. Statistical significance (p < 0.05) was not reached, perhaps due to the small sample size. The implications of the study included all subjects consistently identified the absence of drug-induced movements; demonstrated increased use of correct clinical terminology; and reported gaining new knowledge.