Sixty‐six new patients attending a psychiatric outpatient clinic were interviewed by nurses, psychiatrists, psychologists, or medical students. Immediately after being interviewed, each patient recorded their opinions of the interviewer by giving ratings on 30 semantic differential scales. Factor analysis of the ratings suggested that patients perceived nurses as favourably as they perceived the other interviewers. Patients did, however, differentiate between interviewers in terms of their perceived age, seniority and experience. The study indicates that nurses can ‘clerk’ psychiatric outpatients effectively and that this is acceptable to the pat