Restraints practices among psychiatric nurses in state mental health-care setting, Karnataka, India

Background: Using physical restraints are a highly preferred practice in psychiatric wards. The main reason to use physical restraints in psychiatric wards is to prevent injury to patient and others and reduce violent behavior among mentally ill patients. Purposes: The purpose of the study is to determine the use of physical restraints and ongoing practices among nurses working at psychiatric wards. Methods: This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study done involving fifty psychiatric nurses. Nurses who agreed to participate in the study filled out structured self-report questionnaire prepared by the investigators. Results: The mean number of patients cared by each nurse per month was 52.88 and mean number of patients restrained by nurse per month was 7.74. Twenty percent of nurses reported that they use alternatives before employing restraint practices. Ninety percent of nurses reported using roll of gauze as a restraint material. A good number of nurses (68%) reported that the restraint procedure is limited to <2 h. Only 4% nurses reported receipt of written orders for use of restraints. There was a significant association between age of the nurses with number of patients cared. Conclusion: For a better nursing care, it is very important to develop a restraint practice protocol.