Monitoring
It is established in the literature (Gray and Gournay, 2000; Walker and MacAuley, 2005) that monitoring of side effects is
an important aspect of a nurse’s role. Ideally, before antipsychotic medication is prescribed, a physical assessment should be undertaken. This should include an ECG as some antipsychotics are known to lengthen the QTc interval. Routine bloods tests and vital signs need to be taken as baseline indicators of physical health status, for example it is helpful to have a baseline blood pressure before the use of antipsychotics to provide a comparator to any detected change once medication has been started.