THE GARDNER BEHAVIOR CHART

The Gardner behavior chart is a rating scale consisting of 15 categories, each of which is subdivided into a five point scale. It was developed directly out of work with psychotic patients at the Gardner State Hospital and is designed to be scored from time to time by the nurses in charge of a patient in order to give the psychiatrist a condensed objective record of the patient's behavior on the ward. It is not intended to take the place of the psychiatric interview, which is the psychiatrist's special responsibility. Only those categories which can be easily observed by the nurses have been scaled. The nurses are encouraged to supplement the numerical scores with comments. The nurses' understanding of the patients' problems is improved as the result of their scoring of the patients.