Difficulties and Ingenuity or Practices to Cope with Them of Mid-career Psychiatric Nurses for Early Release of Physical Restraints in Acute Care for Inpatients

Abstract

The present study aimed to describe mid-career nurses’ experiences of the difficulties qualitatively working on early release of physical restraints on acute psychiatric patients, and describe ingenuity in addressing early release and practices to cope with their difficulties.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven nurses from an acute psychiatric or psychiatric emergency ward. The data were analyzed qualitatively and descriptively. We identified four categories of nurses’ difficulties: “the release of physical restraints was limited due to insufficient resources of nursing personnel”; “the hesitation to release physical restraints due to the risk of violence against team members of nursing care”; “it is hard to promote the early release of physical restraints with limited authority in nursing care”; “there are difficulties in cooperation with the primary psychiatrist for releasing physical restraints,” and six categories for nursing practices; “such as creating a work environment where nurses can express their opinions”; “taking preventive measures actively against accidents due to the release of physical restraints,” etc. Mid-career nurses may encounter challenges in releasing physical restraints early but overcome them to foster effective teamwork and provide comprehensive nursing care.