Nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices toward physical restraint and seclusion in an inpatients’ psychiatric ward

Abstract

The objective is to assess psychiatric nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding the use of physical restraints and seclusion in an inpatient psychiatric ward at Jeddah Psychiatric Hospital, Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. A descriptive correlation exploratory design was used with 37 nurses, selected conveniently. A self-administered structured questionnaire developed by Janelli, L. M., Kanski, G. W., Scherer, Y. K., & Neary, M. A. (1992. Physical restraints: Practice, attitudes/knowledge among nursing staff. Journal of Long Term Care Administration, 20(2), 22–25) was used. The respondents were 37 nurses, of whom 52.8% were male. Moderate knowledge and attitude with strong intent to use physical restraint were found among participants. There was no significant correlation between nurses’ practice, knowledge, and attitude scores. It was noted that 33.3% of the respondents preferred using both restraints and seclusion. The male gender was correlated with the use of physical restraints r = −.341, while use of seclusion had positive significant correlation with nurses’ level of education r = .465, and negative correlation with other demographic background. This study shows that nurses’ inadequate level of knowledge on the physical and psychological effects of restraints and seclusion impact their performance and attitude in caring with psychiatric patients. Therefore, an in-service training program on procedure, indication, and negative consequences of restraints and seclusion is highly suggested to limit the frequency of restraint and seclusion use among psychiatric patients.