Improving the culture of safety on a high-acuity inpatient child/adolescent psychiatric unit by mindfulness-based stress reduction training of staff.

Problem: The purpose of this study was to reduce perceived levels of interprofessional staff stress and to improve patient and staff safety by implementing a brief mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) training program on a high-acuity psychiatric inpatient unit.

Methods: A one-group repeated measure design was utilized to measure the impact of the (MBSR) training program on staff stress and safety immediately post-training and at 2 months. Two instruments were utilized in the study: the Toronto Mindfulness Scale and the Perceived Stress Scale.

Findings: The MBSR program reduced staff stress across the 2-month post-training period and increased staff mindfulness immediately following the brief training period of 8 days, and across the 2-month post-training period. A trend toward positive impact on patient and staff safety was also seen in a decreased number of staff call-ins, decreased need for 1:1 staffing episodes, and decreased restraint use 2 months following the training period.

Conclusions: A brief MBSR training program offered to an interprofessional staff of a high-acuity inpatient adolescent psychiatric unit was effective in decreasing their stress, increasing their mindfulness, and improving staff and patient safety.