Citation

Muir-Cochrane E, Oster C. Nurs. Health Sci. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/nhs.12822

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

With an imperative to reduce or eliminate the use of coercive practices in mental health care it is important to understand the experience of service users and staff. This review aimed to synthesise qualitative studies, published between 1996 and 2020, reporting on mental health service users' and staff's experiences of chemical restraint. The databases PsycINFO, CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, Web of Science, and Scopus were searched. Three analytic themes were identified from 17 included articles, synthesising the experiences of service users and staff. These included: 'Unjustified vs Justified', 'Violence vs Necessity', and 'Reflecting back: Positives and Negatives'. Service users viewed chemical restraint as an unjustified response to 'behaviours of concern' and experienced it as a violent act with negative outcomes, although some saw it as necessary in retrospect and preferred it to other forms of coercion. Staff generally viewed it as a justified response to 'behaviours of concern' and experienced it as appropriate within the constraints of staff numbers and limited alternatives. These findings identify nuances not apparent in the literature, which has generally conflated all forms of coercive practices.

Language: en

Keywords

Chemical Restraint; Coercive Practices; Forced Medication; Involuntary Medication; Psychiatric; Qualitative Synthesis