Psychiatric staff on the wards does not share attitudes on aggression.
BACKGROUND
The concept of ward culture has been proposed as a reason for the often reported differences in treatment decisions when managing inpatient aggression. We therefore studied whether staff on wards actually shares similar perceptions and attitudes about aggression and whether the specialty of the ward on which the staff members work influences these opinions.


METHODS
The Attitudes Towards Aggression Scale was used to assess attitudes towards aggression in 31 closed psychiatric wards. Altogether 487 staff members working on the study wards were asked to fill in the scale. Respondent's gender, age, educational level, working experience on the current ward, and specialty of this ward (acute, forensic, rehabilitation) served as background variables.


RESULTS
Most of the variance found was due to differences between individuals. Belonging to the personnel of a particular ward did not explain much of the variance.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric staff on the wards does not share attitudes on aggression. As each staff member has his/her own opinion about aggression, training for dealing with aggression or violent incidents should be done, at least partly, on an individual level. We also suggest caution in using the concept of ward culture as an explanation for the use of restrictive measures on psychiatric wards.
Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Tero
T
Laiho
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Hyvinkää Hospital Area, Tuusula, Finland ; Faculty of Medicine, Forensic Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Nina
N
Lindberg
Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Grigori
G
Joffe
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Hyvinkää Hospital Area, Tuusula, Finland ; Vanha Vaasa Hospital, Vaasa, Finland.
Hanna
H
Putkonen
Department of Psychiatry, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
Anja
A
Hottinen
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Hyvinkää Hospital Area, Tuusula, Finland.
Raija
R
Kontio
Hospital District of Helsinki and Uusimaa, Hyvinkää Hospital Area, Tuusula, Finland.
Eila
E
Sailas
Aggression; Attitude; Staff; Ward culture