In mental health nursing, recovery-orientation is regarded as a best practice approach for patient care. To assess the effect of an intervention utilising a recovery-oriented approach in acute practice, a controlled pilot trial was conducted. On intervention wards, mental health nurses received special training. Recovery Self-Assessment Scale was used to assess the effects of the training. No statistically significant effects were found, between the experimental conditions. Reasons for this result may be methodological, practical or due an intervention that was not powerful enough. Recovery-oriented intervention studies in mental health nursing should be conducted with caution.