The Current Knowledge and Attitude Of Nurses Working at Tanta Mental Health Hospital Regarding The Use Of Physical Restraint on psychiatric Patients.

Use of the physical restraint in psychiatric settings remains controversial. Whenever nurses have to make a decision to use restrain , they often find themselves in the midst of conflict between professional obligation to care for the patients' safety and well-being and a respect for patient's right to manage informed and autonomous choices . This study aimed to identify the current knowledge and attitude of nurses working with psychiatric patients regarding the use of physical restraint. This study followed a descriptive research design. The study was carried out at "Tanta Mental Health Hospital". The target population of this study comprised 50 nurses who provide direct care to psychiatric inpatients in the previously mentioned setting and who are willing to participate in the study . The tool used to collect data was Physical Restraint Questionnaire . Physical Restraint Questionnaire was originally developed by Janelli et al (2006). It aims to assess knowledge and attitude of nurses toward the use of physical restraint . The study showed that studied nurses held high knowledge about and nearly positive attitude toward physical restraint use . The study recommended that there is a critical need to provide extensive educational training programs to complement nurses' knowledge by enforcing ethical consideration about the use of physical restraint as well as nurses' attitude toward it .