Nurses Practice to Physical Restraint Practices in ICU Units at Three Teaching Hospitals in Baghdad

AbstractBackground:using physical restraints is a highly preferred practice in intensive care units. Most of the studies show that the main reasons for restraining patients is to prevent dislodgment of medical equipments and nurses have positive attitudes about restraining practices.Objectives: this research was conducted for the purpose of evaluating the use of physical restraints, and observing ongoing practices and perceptions about physical restraints among intensive care unit nurses.Methods: A descriptive –cross sectional study done with 6 intensive care unit nurses from the Ist of Jan to end of May 4112. Nurses who agree to participate in the study were (36) filled out the questionnaire prepared by the researcher. The questionnaire consisted of three parts. The first part included questions related to nurses demographic variables; the second part included questions related to restraint practices of nurses; the third part included phrases to determine nurses perceptions for restraint use where nurses gave agree/ disagree answers .Results: the study indicated that the Prevalence of physical restraint use is high in all ICUs. Gauze is the mostly used but not a proper material for restraining patients in all intensive care units.Reasons for using restraints as described by nurses are to prevent equipment dislodgement and providing safe working environment for themselves.Conclusions: In this study, physical restraining practices of intensive care nurses and materials used for this practice are not appropriate for patient care. Perceptions and knowledge of nurses play an important role on the selection of the restraining method.Recommendation: The study recommended that in order to get a better nursing care it is very important to develop a restraint policy and educate nurses to provide awareness about this highly used practice in intensive care units in these hospitalsKeywords: Intensive care unit, nursing care, physical restraining practices