Developing an ECT integrated care pathway

The controversial treatment of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) remains one of the most emotive issues in mental health. Some nurses have expressed unease about working in this area, often because of the vagueness of the treatment and lack of evidence concerning treatment outcomes. The present paper explores some of these issues and looks at how an integrated care pathway may help to generate evidence about the experience of individuals receiving the treatment, the quality of care given and the effectiveness of the treatment. The paper outlines the development of an integrated care pathway for the ECT clinic at Millbrook Mental Health Unit and describes the multidisciplinary process used to design, develop and evaluate the pathway. The importance of team‐working to ensure ownership of a pathway is explored and changes to the integrated care pathway after evaluation are outlined. Copyright © 2002 Whurr Publishers Ltd.