title: Inappropriate restraint practices in Australian teaching hospitals.
abstract: The use of restraints in contemporary healthcare represents an ethical problem to nurses and nursing. This paper describes a point prevalence study undertaken to examine the patterns of restraint use in an Australian teaching hospital. The objectives were: to clearly define restraint; establish its prevalence; the reasons for its use; and, to describe staffing levels in relation to restraint rates. Of the 256 patients who were observed, 9.4% were restrained. A third of the patients aged 85 years and over were restrained. The results support a previous Australian study that reported restraint rates of between 8.5% and 18.5% in acute hospitals.
authors.affiliation: Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Irving
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001315:Australia; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D012149:Restraint, Physical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*