Psychiatric Nurses’ Perceptions about Physical Restraint; A Qualitative Study

Background: the use of physical restraint as an intervention in the care of psychiatric patients datesback to the beginning of psychiatry. although it is a challenging question, it is still one of the commonprocedures in psychiatry. considering that very little research has been done in iran in relation tophysical restraint, this qualitative study aimed to investigate the experiences of nurses working inpsychiatric wards regarding physical restraint.methods: this qualitative study was done on 14 nurses working in the psychiatric hospitals of ahvazcity, southern iran, during 2011-2012. the participants were selected by purposive sampling. semistructuredinterviews were used for data collection, which were continued until data saturation andemergence of themes. inductive content analysis was used to analyze the data.results: four categories emerged: (1) restraint as a multi-purpose procedure, (2) processing of physicalrestraint, (3) restraint as a challenging subject and (4) the effects of restraint on the spectrum. eachcategory has several different sub-categories.conclusion: the participants described using physical restraint as one of the main strategies to controlpsychiatric patients, and despite having negative consequences, it is extensively used. given the risksand challenges of using physical restraint, nursing education should find alternative methods.