Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice towards Safety Physical Restraints use in intensive care unit

Background: Physical restraints are commonly used in clinical settings to control disruptive
behaviour, wandering, maintain treatment plans, and prevent falls. The level of knowledge
about restraints and the underlying attitudes of staff toward the use of restraints should be
identified because knowledge and attitudes can directly or indirectly affect practice. Aim: the
study was carried out to identify nurses’ knowledge, attitude and practice toward safety
physical restraints use in intensive care unit. Subjects & methods: Research design:
Descriptive research design was utilized. Setting: This study was conducted in intensive
care units in Menofia University Hospital and Shebien El Koom Teaching Hospital. Subjects:
A convenience sample of all nurses on intensive care units in selected setting, 60 nurses in
Menofia University Hospital and 35 nurses in Shebien El Koom Teaching Hospital and 95
patients with physical restraints were included in this study. Tools of data collection: one
tool was used for data collection which is structure interview schedule. Results: The results
revealed that about two thirds of the nurses had poor knowledge and about one third of them
had moderate knowledge, most of nurses had negative attitude and moderate practice toward
the use of physical restraints. There was no statistical significance positive correlation
between nurses’ knowledge and practice score while there was statistical significance positive
correlation between nurses’ knowledge and attitude score. Also there was statistical
significance positive correlation between nurses’ attitude and practice score. Conclusions:
The current study concluded that there was inadequate knowledge and practice and negative
attitude towards the use of physical restraints in intensive care unit. Recommendations: The
study recommended that training programs should be organized for the nurses to improve
their knowledge regarding physical restraint application, and orientation programs should be
utilized for newly jointed nurses to improve their practice and knowledge regarding restraint
application.