Citation

James DV, Fineberg NA, Shah AK, Priest RG. Br. J. Psychiatry 1990; 156: 846-852.

Affiliation

Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Royal College of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2207515

Abstract

The increase in violent incidents on an acute psychiatric ward over a 15-month period was found to be strongly associated with the increase in use of temporary nursing staff (r = 0.63; P = 0.0005). The change in staffing patterns accounted for 39% of the variance in violence. An examination of the characteristics of all patients admitted to the ward revealed that the violent patients were significantly younger, more likely to have been admitted compulsorily and less likely to be depressed than non-violent ones.

Language: en