Development of a Pediatric Behavioral Early Warning Scale (Pedi-BEWS) for Children.

Background and Purpose: The prevention of aggressive behavior in child and adolescent inpatient settings is essential. However, it can be difficult to prompt a quick appropriate intervention without an early warning scale for the prevention and management of behavioral emergencies in a psychiatric inpatient adolescent unit. Behavioral emergencies often result in restraint/seclusion and/or administration of psychotropic medications. The objectives are to develop and evaluate the Pediatric Behavioral Early Warning Scale (Pedi-BEWS) as a screening tool to prompt quick appropriate interventions and to decrease incidents of restraint/seclusion and/or administration of psychotropic medications. Methods: A two-phase methodological design was applied. A total of 447 inpatients and 21 nurses were used to test internal consistency reliability and validity. Results: Receiver operating characteristic curve areas for the developed instrument were calculated to be 0.890 (cognition), 0.959 (affect), and 0.951 (behavior). The overall Pedi-BEWS indicated high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .98). Conclusions: The Pedi-BEWS shows high internal consistency and validity. The use of the newly developed tool may reduce or eliminate episodes of seclusion and restraint for pediatric patients with a behavioral problem. In addition, the tool has the potential to enhance psychiatric nurses' assessment skills and competencies. The use of the newly developed Pedi-BEWS can promote an appropriate and timely nursing assessment and intervention before the deterioration in psychiatric nursing practice.

The use of physical restraints and PRN medications in adolescent psychiatric inpatient units.

PROBLEM: Although physical restraint practices and psychotropic/sedative pro re neta (PRN, as needed) medications have been commonly used for managing inpatient aggression, little is known about the characteristics of adolescents who receive them in psychiatric adolescent inpatient units. We aimed to determine the relationship between the use of physical restraints and psychotropic/sedative PRN medications, and to characterize individual attributes, substance use, clinical factors, and time of the first restraint episodes of the use of physical restraints and psychotropic/sedative PRN medications. METHODS: A retrospective case-control study approach was used with the data from electronic health records at a pediatric psychiatric hospital in the United States. Descriptive statistics, χ2 , multivariate logistic regression, and Cox proportional hazard model were used. FINDINGS: Participants of younger age and participants with a longer length of stay were significantly associated with the use of physical restraints and psychotropic/sedative PRN medications, although the substance-related risks were not significantly associated with the use of restraints. Physical restraints were more likely to have occurred soon after the admission and tapered off as the length of stay increased. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides important information in understanding the risk factors of the use of restraints and psychotropic/sedative PRN medications in psychiatric adolescent inpatient units.

Professional learning partnerships: a collaboration between education and service.

Escalating mental health care needs coupled with a decreasing nurse labor force demand a fundamental paradigm shift in undergraduate education and service partnerships among psychiatric-mental health nursing students and practicing nurses. The purpose of this two-group comparative study was to identify factors that contribute to a successful learning partnership between nursing students and practicing nurses engaged in a clinical specialty partnership program within an acute psychiatric-mental health setting. The convenience sample consisted of 51 partners: 33 undergraduate students and 18 practicing nurses. The Learning Partnership Survey was administered to all partners allowing comparison of ranking among factors important to the partner relationship. Contrary to previous research, student and nurse partners were more similar in their factor ranking in the present study. Statistically significant differences were noted in the ranking of 2 of the 15 factors that fostered successful learning partnerships. Implications for professional learning partnerships between nursing academia and service institutions are discussed.