Reasons for uses of physical restraint and alternatives to them in geriatric nursing: a questionnaire study among nursing staff

摘要

This study is part of a major research project that is concerned with disruptive behaviour among elderly patients and the use of physical restraint in geriatric nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the use of physical restraint and alternatives as reported by professional nurses. The data were collected by a structured questionnaire. Nursing staff (n=287) from a geriatric unit of a health centre, a nursing home, and the medical and psychiatric clinics of a university hospital in one city in central Finland, volunteered for the study. The clear majority (85%) of the nurses stated that physical restraint had been used on the ward during the week preceding the questionnaire. Reasons cited most often for restraint use were reduced physical and cognitive capacity of demented patients. The most common alternative was to try to understand the reasons for the elderly patient's disruptive behaviour. A major challenge for future research and for field experiments is to provide new alternatives to the use of physical restraint in geriatric nursing.