Changes in psychiatric nurse attitudes towards legal representation of inpatients at District Psychiatric Board hearings in Israel: a pilot study
| Autor: | Razek Khawaled, Paula Rosca, Alexander Grinshpoon, Tamar Levy, Alexander M. Ponizovsky |
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| Rok vydání: | 2011 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Open Journal of Psychiatry. :126-131 |
| ISSN: | 2161-7333 2161-7325 |
| DOI: | 10.4236/ojpsych.2011.13019 |
| Popis: | Aims: To compare the initial attitudes of nurses and other professional groups in a psychiatric hospital towards the legal representation (LR) of involuntary admitted psychiatric patients before District Psychi- atric Boards (DPB), and to assess how these attitudes changed after LR had become an everyday routine practice in the hospital. Background: LR of hospital- ized psychiatric patients before DPB has been intro- duced into mental health system worldwide, include- ing Israel. Attitudes of psychiatric staff towards LR and their changes over time are a very important -though unstudied issue. Methods: Thirty seven psy- chiatric nurses employed in the Tirat Carmel Mental Health Center, Israel and 30 other mental health professionals (comparison group) completed the At- titudes to Legal Representation Questionnaire before LR has been instituted in the Center (November 1, 2006) and one year later. Baseline differences be- tween the groups were tested using one-way ANOVA, and pre-post differences in the attitude scores were tested by paired t-tests. Results: Baseline psychiatric nurses attitudes towards LR were significantly more negative than those of the comparison group (F67,3 = 6.87, p < 0.0001), but they significantly improved over the study period (t37 = 2.56, p = 0.015). Conclu- sion: Yearlong, routine exposure to the LR of invol- untarily admitted psychiatric patients may attenuate negative nurse beliefs and attitudes towards LR of such patients at DPB hearings. The more positive attitudes may enhance the nurses' ability to present information about patients without jeopardizing their human and civil rights, and help patients to attain a greater sense of control over their illness manage- ment and satisfaction with the services received. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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