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Emergency Nurses’ Responses to a Survey about Means Restriction: An Adolescent Suicide Prevention Strategy

College of Nursing, Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina

Arnim Dontes, MBA

Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Markus J.P. Kruesi, MD

youth division at the Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina

James Pennington, MSW

Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Michael Fendrich, PhD

Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

BACKGROUND: Little is known about nurses’ knowledge and practice of an injury control strategy (means restriction) with parents of adolescents at risk for suicide who are cared for in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the experiences of emergency nurses (N = 527) with suicidal adolescents; their training, knowledge, practice, and attitudes toward means restriction; and unit practice related to the delivery of means restriction education to parents by emergency nurses.

DESIGN: A survey was mailed to all members of the Illinois Chapter of the Emergency Nurses Association.

RESULTS: Although the majority (80%, n = 407) of respondents had recent experience with suicidal adolescents, only 24% (n = 122) had ever received means restriction training, 28% (n = 136) provided means restriction education to parents, and 18% (n = 89) worked in units where means restriction is standard practice.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study are consistent with injury control literature. The authors recommend training emergency department staff in means restriction, adopting a means restriction protocol for adolescents at risk for suicide, and conducting outcome studies to determine the effectiveness of training and practice.

Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, Vol. 9, No. 3, 77-85 (2003)
DOI: 10.1016/S1078-3903(03)00112-5


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