A Comparison of Nurses\u27 Attitudes Concerning Therapeutic Ward Atmosphere with those of Other Members of the Multi-Disciplinary Treatment Team

The atmosphere of a psychiatric hospital ward has been found to have an influence on patient behavior and on treatment outcome. The ward atmosphere is affected by the patients, the multi—disciplinary team and the nurse who is the team member who spends the greatest amount of time on the ward. A multi-disciplinary team which shares similar attitudes concerning ward atmosphere is more likely to create a therapeutic ward atmosphere. The multi-disciplinary teams of three adult psychiatric units at a midwestem psychiatric hospital were subject of a research study regarding their attitudes concerning therapeutic ward atmosphere. The scores, of team members of all three units, on Rudolf Moos\u27 Ward Atmosphere Scale indicated moderate to strong importance placed on the sub-scale of Involvement, Support, Spontaneity, Autonomy, Practical Orientation, Personal Problem Orientation, Anger and Aggression, Order and Organization, and Program Clarity while little importance was placed on the sub-scale of Staff Control. Nurse\u27s scores on all sub-scales corresponded with the majority of the scores of other team members. The majority of scores on the first nine sub-scales ranged from five to eight and from three to five on-the last sub-scale