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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| Physical restraint of older people: a study of Australian practices | | Author(s) | Michael Woodward |
| Journal title | Australasian Journal on Ageing, vol 17, no 4, November 1998 |
| Pages | pp 177-183 |
| Keywords | At risk ; Mobility ; Restriction ; Nursing homes ; Policy ; Australia. |
| Annotation | Physical restraint of older people is a controversial issue. The Australian Society for Geriatric Medicine (ASGM) published a position paper in the Australasian Journal on Ageing in 1996. This Australia-wide audit was undertaken to ascertain the degree of concordance between local policy and practice and the ASGM position. An audit package was mailed to each member of the ASGM resident in Australia, with instructions to perform one audit per site. A total of 35 sites providing a range of acute and sub-acute care completed the audit. Results showed that all but two had a written policy on physical restraint but a minority stipulated actions included in the ASGM position. A prevalence audit revealed 22.6% of 976 people had an order for restraint. The majority (about 70%) was restrained with bed rails. There was little documentation of the rationale for, or intended duration of, the restraint. Informed consent for restraint was documented in only 16.2% of cases. There was poor correlation between local written policy and actual practice. The study concluded that the ASGM position paper is as yet inadequately incorporated into local physical restraint policy and practice. (AKM). |
| Accession Number | CPA-990111404 A |
| Classmark | CA3: C4: 5RC: LHB: QAD: 7YA |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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