2021-16: Eliminating Restraints on a High Acuity Inpatient Behavioral Health Unit

This session looks at a hospital that between April 2015 and February 2016, provided care for frequently agitated, aggressive patients with no restraints utilized.  It reviews techniques used and results from the program.

Presenter: Melinda L. Elliott, RN, MSN, NE-BC

Disclosures: The presenters and planners have no conflict of interest or commercial support to disclose. Off-label uses will not be discussed during this presentation. 

Session Length: 43 minutes

Target Audience: RN

Session Objectives
Upon completion of this presentation, the participant will be able to:

1. Identify techniques Grady’s Behavioral Health Department used to decrease and eventually eliminate the use of mechanical restraints on an inpatient behavioral health unit.
2. Explain the relationship of a therapeutic restraint-free environment and patient improvement.
3. Develop a plan to involve front-line staff in the development of a restraint free environment. 

Keywords: PACE, Restraint, Inpatient, Safety, Aggressive Behavior, De-escalation, Debriefing 

Continuing Nursing Education
0.75 contact hours.  * In order to receive contact hours, you must: Listen to presentation, complete an evaluation, and earn a passing score on the post-test before the expiration date.  You will have 5 tries to correctly answer the questions on the post-test and a score of 80% is required to pass.  Once you have passed and completed an evaluation, the certificate will be generated online, available for you to print immediately.  You cannot earn credit unless all steps are completed.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. 

Originally Presented
APNA 30th Annual Conference
Hartford, Connecticut
Thursday, October 20
11:15am - 12:00pm 

Release Date: April 24, 2017
The contact hours for this session expire: November 30, 2019