Citation

Crichton JH, Calgie J. Med. Sci. Law 2002; 42(1): 30-33.

Affiliation

The Orchard Clinic, Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2002, British Academy of Forensic Sciences, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11858208

Abstract

Within secure psychiatric hospitals, staff have to manage many difficult and challenging situations. Crichton (1997) suggested that when staff perceive a greater degree of responsibility on patients for their actions there is a particularly morally censorious response. The aim of this pilot study was to discover if this association, discovered using a hypothetical scenario, was also present in how nursing staff respond to real violent patient behaviour. Over a five week period all episodes of inter-personal violence in a hospital with special security were identified and those involved interviewed. Thirty-one episodes of inter-personal violence were identified. A disproportionate number were caused by female patients and patients detained under civil sections of mental health legislation. A personality disorder diagnosis and the staff belief that mental disorder did not reduce the individual patient's blame for the incident were associated with the response of a restrictive sanction (both cases p < 0.01).

Language: en