Iranian nurses' perceptions about using physical restraint for hospitalized elderly people: a cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study.

Background: Using physical restraint (PR) for hospitalized elderly people is a major nursing challenge. It is associated with different physical and mental complications and ethical dilemmas, though many nurses still use it to ensure patient safety. Nurses' perceptions are one of the most important factors affecting PR use. This study aimed to evaluate Iranian nurses' perceptions about PR use for hospitalized elderly people.

Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive-correlational study was conducted from July to December 2019. Participants were 270 hospital nurses who were purposively recruited from intensive care units and medical and surgical wards of three teaching hospitals in Kermanshah, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and the Perceptions of Restraint Use Questionnaire (PRUQ). The SPSS software (v. 23.0) was used for data analysis through the independent-sample t test, the one-way analysis of variance, and the multiple regression analysis.

Results: The total mean score of PRUQ was 4.08 ± 0.12 in the possible range of 1-5. The most important reasons for PR use were to prevent patients from falling out of bed and to prevent them from pulling out catheters. The total mean score of PRUQ had significant relationship with participants' age, work experience, and history of receiving PR-related educations (P < 0.05), but had no significant relationship with their gender, educational degree, and affiliated hospital ward (P > 0.05).

Conclusion: This study suggests that nurses attach high importance to PR use for hospitalized elderly people. Healthcare policy-makers at national and hospital levels are recommended to provide nurses with PR-related educations in order to reduce the rate of PR-related complications.