Level of training of nursing staff and the autonomy given to psychiatric inpatients: a multicenter study.

This research examines the influence of the level of professional training of the caretaking staff in psychiatric wards, the type of wards in which a patient is treated and the patient's age compared with the level of limitation put on patient autonomy. Detailed questionnaires were administered to 296 nurses from five mental health centers who met inclusion criteria for the study. The level of autonomy restriction was measured using six representative cases from fieldwork of the interviewees.