The disturbed behavior and dissatisfaction of patients were studied in relation to nurse and junior and senior doctor changes in two different psychiatric wards. One ward represented the medical model of psychiatry and the other a modified form of therapeutic community. The results showed no statistically significant relationship between the weekly level of disturbed behavior and staff changes in either ward. There was a tendency for patients to become more dissatisfied when the nurses left the ward and less dissatisfied with the arrival of senior doctors in the medical model ward only.