2011 Volume 3 Issue 1 Pages 64-70
The present study aimed to develop nursing intervention guidelines for the use of physical restraints in order to ensure patient safety during nursing care while at the same time maintaining patients’ dignity based on sound clinical and ethical judgments. First, ethical judgments regarding the use of physical restraints and characteristics of nurses who provide explanations to patients regarding physical restraints were clarified. A questionnaire was distributed to 1260 nurses and a total of 777 valid responses were analyzed. The results revealed that most nurses utilized physical restraints in order to minimize negative patient behaviors. Many nurses indicated that physical restraints were used for “daily life support”, “emotional support”, and “supporting families”, whereas few nurses used physical restraints to “support staff”. A total of 664 nurses indicated that they provided “explanations” to patients when using physical restraints; 113 nurses indicated that they did not provide explanations. The minimization of negative patient behaviors and the prevention of the failure of relationships were extracted as important factors in the responsibility of nurses towards patients with regard to the use of physical restraints.
