title: The quality of psychiatric nurses' interactions with patients: an observational study.
abstract: The behaviour of nursing staff in each ward of a psychiatric hospital was observed at 5-min intervals for between 7 and 10 h per day for 10 days. The nurses' behaviour was equally divided between interacting with patients, interacting with staff, solitary task oriented behaviour and other behaviours. There was less staff-patient interaction in the acute ward than in the long-term and psychogeriatric wards and senior nurses interacted less with patients and engaged in more solitary task oriented behaviour. Of the interactions with patients, almost 25% were rated as positive and only 0.3% negative. In the long-term wards almost 47% of the interactions were positive.
authors.affiliation: Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Tyson
authors.forename: W G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Lambert
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beattie
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009517:New South Wales; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D015588:Observer Variation; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D011594:Psychometrics; D013997:Time Factors