The evaluation of intensive care unit nurses' opinions on physical restraint application

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The aim of this study is determining the intensive care unit nurses' opinions on physical restraint application. METHODS: This descriptive research has been performed with 90 nurses working at the Intensive Care Units of a private University Hospital in Ankara. The data has been obtained with data collection form. Percentage and chi-square test have been used for data evaluation. RESULTS: 73.3% of nurses are female, 26.7% male. 54.4% works at internal medicine intensive care unit, 45.6% works at medical surgical intensive care unit. The majority have been working at intensive care unit for more than a year. 41.1% of nurses have been trained previously on physical restraint. The nurses think that purpose of physical restraint is to protect patient from harming himself and his surroundings (82.2%) What nurses think about who should give the decision for starting and ending of the physical restraint application; doctors (22.2%), the nurse (21.3%), the nurse and doctor together (43.3%) should decide. According to nurses, the advantages of physical restraint application are: to provide the continuity of the treatment (24.4.%), to protect patient from harming himself and his surroundings (65.6%) and to decrease the work load of the nurses (6.7%). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Nurses consider physical restraint as an application that needs to be done in terms of patient safety. It has been determined that the physician's directive isn't paid enough attention to the initiation and termination of physical detection. Therefore; It's recommended that the knowledge about nurses' responsibilities related to physical detection and implementation should be reinforced and updated

Keywords

• intensive care unit
• nursing
• physical restraint