Staff attitudes and thoughts about the use of coercion in acute psychiatric wards.
OBJECTIVE
Previous research has shown considerable differences in how often coercive measures are used in mental health care between groups of patients, institutions and geographical areas. Staff attitudes towards the use of coercion have been put forward as a factor that may influence these differences.


METHODS
This study investigates the attitudes to coercion in 651 staff members within 33 Norwegian acute psychiatric wards. The newly developed Staff Attitude to Coercion Scale was used to measure staff attitudes.


RESULTS
Multilevel analysis showed that there was significant variance among wards, estimated to be about 8-11% of the total variance on three scales.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite substantial differences in attitudes among wards, most of the variance could be attributed to individual staff level factors. Hence, it is likely that staff attitudes are influenced, to a large extent, by each individual staff member's personality and values.
Husum
Tonje Lossius
TL
SINTEF Health Service Research, POBox 124, Blindern, 0314 Oslo, Norway. tonje.l.husum@sintef.no
Bjørngaard
Johan Haakon
JH
Finset
Arnstein
A
Ruud
Torleif
T
D000208:Acute Disease / Q000628:therapy; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003068:Coercion; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000628:therapy*; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D011567:Psychiatric Department, Hospital / Q000592:standards; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult