Implementation of a Recovery-Oriented Training Program for Psychiatric Nurses in the Inpatient Setting: A Mixed-Methods Hospital Quality Improvement Study.

This mixed-methods hospital quality improvement (QI) study primarily aimed to reduce the use of mechanical restraints in a short-stay inpatient psychiatric setting by facilitating change in care delivery through recovery-oriented nursing practice. The implementation of an evidence-based education for psychiatric-mental health registered nurses (PMH-RNs) intended to improve their knowledge of, and attitudes toward, recovery-focused mental health treatment principles. Findings suggest that recovery-oriented training programs for PMH-RNs can be a potentially useful hospital strategy for restraint reduction. In this article, the authors report their findings using the SQUIRE 2.0 framework for publication of QI studies (Ogrinc et al., 2015).

An International Congress on Violence in Clinical Psychiatry: Reflections and Takeaways.

Psychiatric-mental health nurses are lifelong learners and reflective practitioners. In this brief article, the authors share their professional reflections and pearls on innovative mental health nursing practice from a recent international conference on violence in clinical psychiatry.

Short message service can be a promising tool for psychiatric patients and clinicians.

Short message service (SMS), commonly referred to as text messaging, allows instantaneous communication between mobile telephones and other systems via 160-character messages. SMS has a wide reach, and thus researchers and public health officials have considered using this platform for health-related communication. Today, as our society continues to integrate components of automation in various forms and levels of human interaction, and with the increasing ubiquity of mobile technology in health care, technology-delivered health interventions such as SMS offer a creative alternative that can be a valuable tool to assist mental health patients in their own treatment and recovery and for the mental health clinicians who are responsible for providing care and its delivery.

Patient Falls and Injuries in U.S. Psychiatric Care: Incidence and Trends.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to estimate the incidence of falls (total, injurious, and assisted) in U.S. psychiatric care across 6 years (April 2013-March 2019). METHODS: Data on falls among patients of adult and geriatric psychiatric units of general, acute care, and psychiatric hospital inpatient units from the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators were used for this 6-year study. Total falls, assisted falls (i.e., falls broken or slowed by staff), and injurious falls were calculated, along with trends in total and injurious fall rates. RESULTS: The sample included 1,159 units in 720 hospitals. Of the 119,246 falls reported, 25,807 (21.6%) resulted in injury. Only 7.0% of the total falls in psychiatric units were assisted by a staff member. Falling unassisted was associated with a higher likelihood of fall-related injury (adjusted odds ratio=1.69, 95% confidence interval=1.59 to 1.80). The total fall rate (8.55 per 1,000 patient-days) and injurious fall rate (1.97 per 1,000 patient-days) were highest for geriatric psychiatric units in general hospitals. Total and injurious fall rates in psychiatric units in general hospitals declined during the study (total fall rate declined by 10% for adult psychiatric units in general hospitals). There was no clear trend in total or injurious fall rates for units in psychiatric hospitals. CONCLUSIONS: Falls are a persistent problem in psychiatric care settings. Few fall-prevention programs have been tested in these settings, which have unique risk factors for falls. Additional research is needed to develop fall-prevention interventions in psychiatric care.

Computers and information technologies in psychiatric nursing.

TOPIC: There is an assumption that psychiatric nurses are late adopters of technology because psychiatric nursing has been traditionally viewed as a nontechnological nursing specialty. PURPOSE: This article will review current nursing literature to outline the value and significance of computers and information technologies to psychiatric nursing. SOURCES OF INFORMATION: Existing bodies of research literature related to computers and information technology for psychiatric nurses. CONCLUSION: Three areas of psychiatric nursing are identified and the specific advantages and benefits of computers and information technologies in each of these areas are discussed. In addition, the importance of informatics competencies for psychiatric nursing practice is reiterated in order to accelerate its acquisition.