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Biomedical subjects

Phil Woods

Publications and source records attributed to Phil Woods.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Challenging behaviour in the elderly-monitoring violent incidents.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the frequency and nature of violent incidents in psychogeriatric wards and nursing homes in terms of type and severity of incidents, what provoked the incidents, and what kind of measure was needed to stop the aggression. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Aggressive behaviour of the study group was monitored using the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R( in two Norwegian nursing homes and two geriatric psychiatric wards for a period of three months. Severity of incidents were monitored with the built-in severity scoring system in SOAS-R. RESULTS: During the study period 32 out of the 82 patients were reported to be violent. The majority of the incidents were generated by a minority of the patients. Physical injury to the staff as a consequence of the aggression was extremely rare. Situations where the client was denied something were the most provocative ones and a substantial number of incidents occurred at bath/shower times. Talking to the patient was the most frequent measure used to stop the aggression, but more intrusive measures were also used. CONCLUSIONS: A substantial proportion of the incidents were associated with personal care tasks, suggesting a crucial role for communication difficulties and a focus for staff training. We suggest that personal care situations should be added to the variable list in future research.

Aged↗
PubMed2005

The Behavioural Status Index: testing a social risk assessment model in a high security forensic setting.

The Behavioural Status Index model suggests that 'social risk' tends to vary inversely with an individual's insight and capacity to perform key communication and social skills. The aim of this study was to describe emergent trends in data related to the risk, insight, and communication and social skills subscales used in the model. Data were collected from 503 patients in two high security mental health hospitals. Although a distinct factorial structure emerged suggesting groupings of behaviours, results provide little support for the overall model proposed.

Dangerous Behavior↗
PubMed2004

Barriers to research utilisation among forensic mental health nurses.

This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive design to identify barriers to research utilisation among forensic mental health nurses. A postal questionnaire was sent to the total population of 88 registered nurses working in a forensic mental health hospital in the UK. Forty-seven responded representing a response rate of 53%. Results showed that the greatest barriers to research utilisation were those related to the characteristics of the setting in which nurses work or the personal characteristics of nurses themselves, which seems to be consistent with previous studies undertaken in the area. However, the nurses reported it especially difficult to trust what research shows because they feel that it is not always possible to apply those findings to their particular work environment. The main implications for policy are a need for an increase in support from management, programmes of advanced education to provide nurses with research skills, an improvement in accessibility and availability of research reports and an increase in time available to read and implement research. The main suggestions for future research are that qualitative studies should be carried out to attain a better understanding of mental health nurses' attitudes towards research utilisation.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Relationships among risk, and communication and social skills in a high security forensic setting.

The Behavioural Status Index was developed for risk assessment within forensic care. This paper reports data analysis for the Behavioural Status Index and its subscales. Data were collected, using a repeated measures method by primary nurses, from a sample of 503 individual patients in two high security mental health hospitals in the UK. Results are reported for inter-item correlations, factor analysis, and differences among independent groups of patients, categorized by Mental Health Act 1983 classification, patient ward dependency, and patient gender. Data trends are indicative of clinically interesting relationships. A distinct factorial structure emerged suggesting groupings of behaviours.

Affect↗
PubMed2003

Effectiveness of nursing interventions in people with personality disorders.

BACKGROUND: Nurses usually provide care for people with personality disorders on a day-to-day basis. Consequently, it is important to establish how effective nursing interventions are for those with personality disorders, both in terms of general management and more specific therapeutic approaches. These are also issues of current political and professional debate. The crucial question, however, for planners, providers and commissioners of services is, What research evidence is there about effectiveness? There is also a need to determine what further research is necessary to evaluate programmes for managing or modifying behaviours. AIM: The aim of this paper is to report on a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of nursing interventions in people with personality disorders, whether delivered by nurses alone or in combination with other health care professionals. METHOD: The review was conducted according to the United Kingdom National Health Service Centre for Reviews and Dissemination guidelines. Literature was identified from electronic database searching, footnote chasing, hand searching of journals and contact with authors of studies. Narrative synthesis was undertaken in relation to study design, participants, and type of intervention. FINDINGS: Eighteen separate studies were included in the review: four randomized controlled trials, four non-randomized controlled trials, seven before-and-after studies and three case studies. CONCLUSIONS: There is a weak evidence-base for what constitutes effective nursing intervention with people with personality disorders. There is stronger evidence from mixed disciplines intervention studies than from nursing only intervention studies. Studies of interventions based on psychological approaches show greater improvements in outcomes than nursing management studies.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

The Brøset violence checklist (BVC).

OBJECTIVE: The Brøset violence checklist (BVC) is a short-term violence prediction instrument assessing confusion, irritability, boisterousness, verbal threats, physical threats and attacks on objects as either present or absent. The aim of this paper is to describe the evolution and usefulness of the BVC. METHOD: This paper reviews studies on the BVC and discusses implications for further research. RESULTS: Empirical research has shown that it has moderate sensitivity and high specificity with an adequate inter-rater reliability. CONCLUSION: The BVC is a useful instrument for predicting inpatient violence within the next 24-h period. The psychometric properties of the instrument are satisfactory. Results from ongoing studies will give important information on cultural differences, the validity of the BVC in less well staffed wards, the clinical use of the checklist and its ability to predict violence throughout all the hospital stay.

Acute Disease↗