Premium
Physical Restraint of Older People: a Study of Australian Practices
Author(s) -
Woodward Michael
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
australasian journal on ageing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.63
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1741-6612
pISSN - 1440-6381
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-6612.1998.tb00069.x
Subject(s) - audit , concordance , medicine , occupational safety and health , documentation , human factors and ergonomics , position (finance) , poison control , injury prevention , suicide prevention , family medicine , medical emergency , business , accounting , finance , pathology , computer science , programming language
Objectives: Physical restraint of older people is a controversial issue. The Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine (ASGM) recently published a position paper in this journal. This Australia‐wide audit was undertaken to ascertain the degree of concordance between local policy and practice and the ASGM position. Methods: An audit package was mailed to each member of the ASGM resident in Australia, with instructions to perform one audit per site. Results: Thirty five sites providing a range of acute and subacute care completed the audit. All but two had a written policy on physical restraint but a minority stipulated actions included in the ASGM position. A prevalence audit revealed 22.6 per cent of 976 people with a mean age of 78.5 years were physically restrained, and an additional 1.7 per cent had an order for restraint. Most (70 per cent) were restrained with bed rails. There was little documentation of the rationale for, or intended duration of, the restraint. Informed consent for restraint was documented in only 16.2 per cent of cases. There was poor correlation between local written policy and actual practice. Conclusion: The ASGM position paper is as yet inadequately incorporated into local physical restraint policy and practice.