Intrahospital relocation of psychiatric patients and effects on aggression.
Aggression is a recurring problem with psychiatric patients and can pose special problems on inpatient units. The purpose of this study were to identify changes in patients aggression as a consequence of routine individual relocation and to identify the relationship of certain variables with patterns of aggression. Using an adaptation of the Overt Aggression Scale (Yudofsky, Silver, Jackson, Endicott, & Williams, 1986), data were collected from the patient records of 201 individuals who had been admitted to a state hospital and subsequently transferred to another ward in the same hospital. There was a phase by day interaction with the day-to-day pattern of aggression in the pretransfer phase differing significantly from that in the posttransfer phase. The highest mean aggression for a single day was the day following transfer; the second highest was the day before transfer. There were main effects for age and number of hospital admissions.
Thomas
M D
MD
Department of Psychosocial Nursing, University of Washington, Seattle 98195-9950.
Ekland
E S
ES
Griffin
M
M
Hagerott
R J
RJ
Leichman
S S
SS
Murphy
H
H
Osborne
O H
OH
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000374:Aggression; D005260:Female; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006783:Hospitals, State; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010360:Patient Transfer; D014861:Washington