title: Attitudes of emergency care staff towards young people who self-harm: a scoping review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether reported attitudes towards patients who attend A&E following self-harm extend to young people.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Historically A&E staff have displayed negative attitudes towards patients who self-harm, although more recent research suggests that attitudes have shifted. There is retrospective evidence of low satisfaction with A&E services by individuals who self-harmed as adolescents, with comparatively little research which has specifically examined attitudes towards adolescent self-harm available.
  
  
  METHODS
  A scoping review of papers published from 2000 to 2012 was undertaken, papers accessed through the following databases, British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Medline, Psychology and Behavioural Science Collection, and PsychINFO. Hawker et al.'s (2002) methodology for critical appraisal was adopted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eleven papers derived from nine studies were located; three studies adopted qualitative methods, two mixed methods; the remainder were quantitative adopting a survey approach to measure attitudes. The studies revealed inconsistent findings, although the setting, patients' characteristics and education and training all appear to have a bearing on attitudes towards young people who self-harm.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further research is required which considers attitudes of emergency care practitioners within the context of emergency care work, and which investigates whether being a young person per se has an influence on attitudes.
authors.affiliation: University of Greenwich, School of Health & Social Care, Avery Hill Campus, London SE9 2UG, United Kingdom. Electronic address: k.p.cleaver@greenwich.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cleaver
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D016529:Emergency Nursing; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior / Q000451:nursing*
keywords: Accident and emergency; Adolescence; Attempted suicide; Attitudes; Emergency care; Self-harm; Young people