TY - JOUR
PY - 2017//
TI - Factors impacting perceived safety among staff working on mental health wards
JO - BJPsych open
A1 - Haines, Alina
A1 - Brown, Andrew
A1 - McCabe, Rhiannah
A1 - Rogerson, Michelle
A1 - Whittington, Richard
SP - 204
EP - 211
VL - 3
IS - 5
N2 - BACKGROUND: Safety at work is a core issue for mental health staff working on in-patient units. At present, there is a limited theoretical base regarding which factors may affect staff perceptions of safety. AIMS: This study attempted to identify which factors affect perceived staff safety working on in-patient mental health wards.
METHOD: A cross-sectional design was employed across 101 forensic and non-forensic mental health wards, over seven National Health Service trusts nationally. Measures included an online staff survey, Ward Features Checklist and recorded incident data. Data were analysed using categorical principal components analysis and ordinal regression.
RESULTS: Perceptions of staff safety were increased by ward brightness, higher number of patient beds, lower staff to patient ratios, less dayroom space and more urban views.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings from this study do not represent common-sense assumptions.
RESULTS are discussed in the context of the literature and may have implications for current initiatives aimed at managing in-patient violence and aggression. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: None. COPYRIGHT AND USAGE: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2017. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.
Language: en
LA - en SN - 2056-4724 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1192/bjpo.bp.117.005280 ID - ref1 ER -