Nurses opinion regarding physical restrains for psychiatric patients: a comparative study

The study was carried out in three hospitals in three different countries: Riyadh Mental Health Hospital [Saudi Arabia], Psychological Medicine Hospital [Kuwait] and El-Nabawy El-Mohandes Hospital [Alexandria, Egypt]. The total sample comprised 257 nurses. Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire developed by the investigators and guided by Heyman's [1987] instrument covering the following main broad areas: reason for restraint, nurses' feelings when restraining patients and patients' feelings during restraint, time needed for restraint, the effect of restraint on patients, and possible changes in the use of restraint. Results revealed that uncontrolled behavior and aggression towards other persons, oneself and objects are the most common behavior leading to restraint in nurses' opinion. Also, restraint helps patient to calm down and behave better after its removal. The majority of nurses attributed more negative feelings to patients while restrained, as well as feeling guilty about restaining patients. Time needed for restraint as well as possible changes in the use of restraint varied among nurses

Psychiatric patients knowledge and opinion about their psychotropic medication

The present study was carried out on 90 patients hospitalized at El- Nabawy El-Mohandes Psychiatric Hospital, aiming to identify the knowledge and opinion of psychiatric patients about psychotropic drugs and factors affecting them. Results indicated that the patients lack knowledge about psychotropic medication. They usually identify their medication by color and shape and are knowledgeable about the frequency of intake and route of administration, but are less able to recognize the name, dose, reason for drug intake and possible side effects. Certain factors; namely sex, level of education and duration of illness seem to affect significantly some areas of patients' drug knowledge. Some misconceptions were prevalent among patients. They believed that drugs would affect their normal life, cause more agitation and initiate negative attitude from people

Assessment of the quality of nursing performance at two general hospitals in Riyadh city

The objectives of the study are to assess the quality of nurses performance in providing basic patient care and to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses of performance within various aspects of patient care. 80 nurses from 21 general medical and surgical wards at the two largest general hospitals in Riyadh city were observed. Data were collected through the use of the Staff Nurse Performance Assessment Scale [SNPAS], which is an observational rating scale developed by the researchers. SNPAS has a total of 71 items arranged into 5 major categories which include; assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, and interpersonal/professional. The result shows that, on SNPAS as a whole, the average of the total mean score of the entire sample was 1.22 +/- 0.25 which denotes poor performance. Interpersonal/professional category got the highest mean among the other categories and reflects satisfactory performance. Implications of the finding were discussed and recommendations were Proposed

Comparison of budgeted nursing care hours with actual hours provided by nursing personnel on inpatient units in Saudi Arabia

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the present utilization of nursing personnel and to compare the actual hours provided by nursing personnel with the budgeted nursing care hours. Work sampling technique was used in the study. Direct instantaneous observation of all nursing personnel on three inpatient units in the medical/surgical service of the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh was employed. Observations were carried out and covering day and night shifts. Data collected was collected and the number of hours and percentage of time spent on different levels and areas of activities were computed. Then, the technique of comparison was introduced to evaluate the current availability of staff against the planned staffing program. The results show that a limited amount of time is devoted to patient-centered activities from all the nursing personnel categories. The data show that two of the studied units had more nursing care hours available per patient per day compared with the targeted budgeted nursing care hours as has been defined by the Nursing Service Administration of the National Guard Hospital at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Effectiveness of nurses' participation in clinical teaching of nursing students

This study was conducted in order to plan, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of participation of qualified nurses in clinical teaching of nursing students. The study was conducted in Health Institute for Girls in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Teachers confirmed the role of nursing staff in teaching students. They recommended that nurses' participation method should be continued