non-licensed encroachment???

[PrisonPsych]

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I have a friend getting an EAP evaluation and apparently they were given a WAIS by a psychiatric nurse. Since when can RNs administer IQ tests??? Am I nuts, or is this person practicing outside their scope?

 

[PhDToBe]

Most places only require a Bachelor's degree in a psychology or psychology-related field, so a psychiatric nurse would qualify. I know people who do not have a Bachelor's who administer and score tests; they do this for a clinic where people receive psychological care for free, if that makes a difference. As long as the nurse has had training, and is not interpreting the scores, it is most likely fine.

 

[erg923]

adminstration isnt the problem. I would wanna know who did the interpretation and wrote the report though.......

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

adminstration isnt the problem. I would wanna know who did the interpretation and wrote the report though.......

That is where it gets sketchy, as some places will give certain instruments that have canned analysis. I wouldn't want to be the one signing off on them, even if I was a "supervising psychologist".

 

[Annakei]

adminstration isnt the problem. I would wanna know who did the interpretation and wrote the report though.......

I think a licensed psychologist does the interpretation and report writing.

 

[erg923]

with all do repect, how do you know?

 

[Annakei]

with all do repect, how do you know?

I am a licensed masters level therapist working in a group psychology/mental health practice with other licensed psychologists. That's how I know.

Sidebar: spellcheck is your friend 🙂

 

[erg923]

I am well aware of this. But its not a perfect world. In this particular case how do you know? Thats what i was asking.....since a nurse gave the test, we were all concerned that the nurse might be interpreting the test as well since it relatively unusual to have a nurse give a full wais.

 

[Annakei]

I am well aware of this. But its not a perfect world. In this particular case how do you know? Thats what i was asking.....since a nurse gave the test, we were all concerned that the nurse might be interpreting the test as well since it relatively unusual to have a nurse give a full wais.

How does anyone else here know for sure? Im not sure why you direct that question to me and not everyone who answers? Why dont you call up the EAP office and ask the nurse specifically for her credentials and find out who actually scores, interprets and writes up the results?

In my area licensed NPs are able to provide clinical supervision and so it wouldn't be far fetched that one would administer a test. However, the scoring and interpretation is almost always done by a licensed clinical psychologist. Therein lies the difference. It would seem that if the nurse is working under the supervision of a licensed clinical psychologist then this would be possible.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable having a nurse administer a full WAIS without a good deal of training. There are too many little things that can be missed and impact the score. I have heard some scary questions from psychologists about administration and scoring, and they supposedly were trained on the instrument. Just my 2 cents.

 

[buzzworm]

At my old job, I worked with psychiatric nurse who was also trained as a social worker and regularly administered clinical ratings. It's possible that the nurse testing your friend had additional qualifications that made him/her an appropriate person for the job.

 

[erg923]

clinical ratings such as HAMs or BPRSs are very different than doing a full WAIS. SWs should not being doing formal psychometric or neuropsychological assessment for clinical purposes, period.