G RouP techniques can be very valuable in many branches of nursing, although they are probably of most importance in a psychiatric setting. These methods are quite different from those used with individuals (individual therapy) or in the total ward situation (milieu therapy). In the medical disciplines, the emphasis has generally been on work with individual patients. The physician especially is trained to work in a two-person relationship and requires considerable reorientation before feeling competent in group work (1). Sometimes he seems to operate on the assumption that the techniques to be used with groups are simply extensions of those used with individuals. This view conflicts markedly with social science theory and practice, in which a group is considered as more than six or seven individuals in proximity with one another. Pressures and norms arise during group interaction which cannot be understood solely on the basis of the psychology of individual members. Like many physicians, many nurses do not feel comfortable working with groups of patients. The problem is especially acute during a psychiatric affiliation when a student nurse may find herself assigned to work with a number of regressed and apathetic patients. Very little in her education equips her for this task, and there are few people to whom she can turn for guidance. For example, at this hospital meetings are scheduled weekly for nurses to discuss work with groups. However, the discussion at these meetings invariably centers upon individual patients and their problems. No mention is made of the group as a group. Since the patient's group relations may have been disrupted when he entered the hospital, it is important that he learn to live and interact with other people before returning home. Greenblatt and his associates believe that the patient's relations with his social group are first to break down, and only later do his relations with his employer and his family deteriorate (2). They hypothesize that adequate therapy means a repair of these relations in reverse order: that is, beginning with his relations to his family. Thus, the nurse must learn how to help the patient integrate into a group and develop a sense of group membership and identification. Any nurse who has worked with a group of regressed patients knows how difficult this task can be. For the kind of help she needs in developing her abiltiy to take part in successful group work, it seems logical for the nurse to turn to the social scientist. Perhaps it is important at this point to note the distinction between group work or group therapy and group psychotherapy. A good description of the role of the nurse in group psychotherapy Dr. Sommer is research psychologist at Saskatchewan Hospital in Weyburn, Sask.