A Nurse-Led Positive Psychotherapy-Based Expressive Arts Therapy Programme to Enhance Hope in Inpatients with Schizophrenia: A Single-Blind Randomised Controlled Trial.

Hope is a recovery-oriented therapeutic target in mental health nursing, yet nurse-led interventions to enhance hope in schizophrenia remain limited. To evaluate the effect of a nurse-led, eight-session Positive Psychotherapy-based expressive arts therapy programme on hope in inpatients with schizophrenia. A two-arm, parallel-group analyst-blinded randomised controlled trial conducted between July and October 2025 at a tertiary specialist psychiatric hospital in Türkiye. Fifty inpatients (aged 18-65) were randomly allocated 1:1 to the intervention (n = 25) or standard care (n = 25). The programme, delivered by a psychiatric nurse, integrated Peseschkian's Balance Model with art-based and narrative techniques. Hope was measured pre- and post-intervention using the Herth Hope Scale and analysed with mixed ANOVA. Large group × time effects were found on total hope (partial η2 = 0.88, p < 0.001) and on all three subscales (partial η2 = 0.78-0.92). A theoretically grounded, nurse-delivered programme substantially enhanced hope across all dimensions. Mental health nurses can use structured expressive interventions as feasible, scalable approaches to support recovery in inpatient settings. Multi-site studies with follow-up are needed to assess sustainability.