2. If the patient acknowledges hearing something that the nurse cannot hear, then the nurse can say, “I don’t hear anything. Tell me what you hear.”
3. The next step is assessment of hallucinations based on the content of the messages, which often reveals the dynamics of the patient’s illness and typically revolves around themes of powerlessness, hatred, guilt, of loneliness.
4. After the content is known, focusing on the hallucinations is unnecessary: doing so might reinforce them: “I know the voices are important to you, but let’s talk about your loneliness right now.”
5. Eventually, the hallucinations are ignored, and the patient is distracted to become engaged in more productive activities, music, of interactions with others.