Progress notes should be succinct and readable notes that summarize the progress your patient has made over the last 24 hours (or whatever interval your hospital requires). It is likely that your hospital has adopted an electronic health record software with templates leading to bloated daily notes with reams of excessive data. This makes the progress notes unreadable and relatively useless for efficiently tracking patient progress. All hope is not lost. In this fact sheet we recommend the tried-and-true SOAP note (Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan) format. Alternatively, you can use the increasingly common APSO note (Assessment, Plan, Subjective, Objective) format that places the most important parts of the note at the beginning.

Managing patients’ anger effectively is critical for both patient well-being and the safety of the hospital environment. This fact sheet provides tips and sample dialogues to assist your patients in identifying their anger triggers, expressing their anger constructively, and reducing aggressive behaviors.

Psychiatric medications cause plenty of side effects, and yet we tend to severely underestimate the number of side effects our patients are experiencing. According to one survey, patients on antidepressants reported 20 times more side effects than were documented by their psychiatrists (Zimmerman M et al, J Clin Psychiatry 2010;71(4):484–490). Sometimes we don’t ask about side effects because we’re not sure what to do about them—so we have created detailed fact sheets covering common side effects and suggesting management strategies. In this fact sheet we’ll give you more general tips on how to ask patients about side effects and how to manage them.

Here we provide an overview of strategies for managing borderline personality disorder (BPD) on the inpatient unit

Psychosis is common, and there are many varieties. This fact sheet guides you through the process of thinking through the main DSM-5 diagnoses that apply to psychotic disorders. For help with how to ask the right questions to discover psychosis in patients, see the How to Interview for Psychosis Fact Sheet.

Psychiatric meds help a lot but can also cause side effects. Here are some key points to keep in mind:

Hepatitis B and C are prevalent among psychiatric inpatients, often transmitted through shared needles and sexual contact. This fact sheet serves as a concise guide on the pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment of these conditions, tailored for the psychiatric setting.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a discrete DSM-5 disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event. Many of your patients in inpatient psychiatry have been exposed to significant trauma, such as adverse childhood experiences, domestic or sexual violence, and the hardships associated with homelessness or substance use. Determining whether these experiences result in PTSD or are manifestations of ongoing trauma impacts (sometimes referred to as "complex PTSD") is crucial for effective treatment. In this fact sheet we describe a practical approach to determining a diagnosis and to what extent your patient’s daily functioning is being significantly affected by past trauma.

The psychiatric review of symptoms (PROS) is an important though often neglected part of the initial psychiatric evaluation. This fact sheet provides a framework to help you screen for the major psychiatric disorders that your client may have. It starts with a mnemonic that will help you recall all the major categories of disorders, followed by brief reminders of the diagnostic criteria. It’s helpful to have this at your side when doing your interviews, though eventually you will memorize most of the information contained herein.

Relaxation and deep breathing exercises are helpful for relieving anxiety and insomnia and you should include them in your repertoire of therapeutic tools on the inpatient uni