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Who is watching them? A study of the interpretation of the observation policy in a mental health unit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Christine M. Hodgson
Affiliation:
Mid-Trent Psychiatric Rotational Training Scheme
Joanne Kennedy
Affiliation:
Mid-Trent Psychiatric Rotational Training Scheme
Paloma Ruiz
Affiliation:
Mid-Trent Psychiatric Rotational Training Scheme
Michael Langenbach
Affiliation:
Mid-Trent Psychiatric Rotational Training Scheme
Steve Moorhead
Affiliation:
Mid-Trent Psychiatric Rotational Training Scheme
Ola Junaid
Affiliation:
Mapperley Hospital, Nottingham NG3 6AA
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Observation levels are widely used in the management of acutely disturbed psychiatric patients (Shugar & Rehaluk, 1990). Although clinicians are involved in decisions about observation levels, there is rarely any specific training and very little formal structure to the decision making process. We report a survey of the views and knowledge of clinical staff regarding observation levels. Questionnaires were sent to all the nurses of the six acute psychiatric wards in the Nottingham Mental Health Unit, and all the doctors involved in the care of patients on these wards.

Type
Audit
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists 1993

References

Scott, P. D. (1977) Assessing dangerousness in criminals. British Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 127–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shugar, G. & Rehaluk, R. (1990) Continuous observation for psychiatric inpatients: A critical evaluation. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 30, 4855.Google Scholar
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