KNOWLEDGE AND EXISTING PRACTICES OF PHYSICAL RESTRAINTS

A study was undertaken to find out the knowledge of nursing personnel and an existing practice of physical restraints in the unit in selected hospital of Kolkata, West Bengal. The respondents were 60 nursing personnel and 60 patients of selected hospitals in Kolkata, West Bengal. Purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents. The tools used for gathering necessary data were a structured knowledge questionnaire for knowledge assessment, an observation checklist for assessing existing practices in the unit. The findings of the study revealed that half of the nursing personnel (50%) had good knowledge regarding use of physical restraint scored between 60-80% in the knowledge questionnaire. In majority (75%) of the cases the practice of physical restraint was graded as fair. There was also a strong association found between knowledge of the nursing personnel with their age, professional qualification, and years of experience in nursing. Further studies can be conducted on different aspects related with this study which has implication in the field of nursing practice, nursing administration, nursing education, and nursing research.