Survey findings describing the use of physical restraints in nursing homes in Victoria, Australia

Directors of Nursing of nursing homes in Victoria, Australia were asked to complete a 48 item survey designed to obtain information about the use of physical restraints. Responses were obtained from 272/420 (64.8%) DONs. Of approximately 10,065 (7326 females; 2739 male) nursing home residents, 25.5% (2568) were physically restrained at the time the survey was completed. of this group, females comprised the largest number (1840; 71.6%) vs 728 (28.4%) males. Bedrails (39%) and restraining belts (29%) were the most commonly used types of physical restraints. "Preventing falls" (80.9%) and "because no alternative exists" (34.6%) were the main patient-oriented and nurse-oriented reasons respectively, for applying physical restraints. Weak correlations were noted between : the number of residents who were physically restrained and the size of nursing homes (r = 0.3313, alpha < 0.05); the total number of staff (r = 0.3031; alpha < 0.05) and the total number of untrained staff (Assistants in nursing) (0.2885; alpha < 0.05), suggesting that these factors had little predictive influence on physical restraint use. The extent that physical restraints are being used in nursing homes in Victoria is high, particularly in the context of a general view in the literature that their use should be minimised, if not avoided entirely. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.