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Mental Health Nurses' Dispositional Decision‐Making for People Presenting to the Emergency Department With Deliberate Self‐Harm: An Exploratory Study
Author(s) -
Phillips Grant,
Gerdtz Marie Frances,
Elsom Stephen James,
Weiland Tracey J.,
Castle David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
perspectives in psychiatric care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 1744-6163
pISSN - 0031-5990
DOI - 10.1111/ppc.12086
Subject(s) - vignette , harm , mental health , disposition , psychology , exploratory research , emergency department , medicine , nursing , psychiatry , social psychology , sociology , anthropology
Background There is no clear treatment pathway for people presenting to Australian emergency departments with deliberate self‐harm. Purpose To explore variations in mental health nurses' disposition decisions for patients following risk assessment for deliberate self‐harm. Design and Method A survey was distributed to mental health nurses. This survey comprised demographic items and questions in response to nine vignettes describing episodes of deliberate self‐harm. Dispositional decision and reasoning were also sought for each vignette. Findings Poor levels of agreement for disposition were found. Practice Implications There was a lack of consensus regarding dispositional outcomes. This suggests a high level of subjectivity in decision‐making which needs to be taken into account within clinical governance.