Restraints Leading to Decrease in Quality of Life Restraints are still being implemented today within the geriatric population for a variety of different reasons. Physical restraints can be described as any object or material that is attached or near a person that impedes movement of any body part (Scheepmans et al., 2014). The use of restraints ranges between 4% and 85% in nursing homes and between 8% and 68% in hospitals (Scheepmans et al., 2014). Typically in today’s nursing, restraints are being used for prevention of harm to the patient and/or staff. However, there are more uncommon and unethical uses for restraints in other countries; such as, when they are understaffed or to prevent the patient from disturbing employees and other patients …show more content…
(2012) comparing the length of stay in geriatric patients. They compared the use of restraints before the year 2007 and when they implicated the reduction of the use of restraints in a Hong Kong hospital in the year 2009. The results were as follows: 2007 was 13.3% and the average length of stay was 19.5 days, were as in 2009, the use was 4.1% and average length of stay was 16.8 days (Kwok et al., 2012). These results showed reduction, not only in the use of restraints, but also in the length of stay. Another study, “Nursing staff perception of the use of physical restrain in institutional care of older people in Finland,” by Saarnio and Isola (2010) interviews nurses to understand how they feel about using restraints on geriatric patients. This study focused on nine categories ranging from history/background on the use of restraints, effects on mobility, alternatives, and emotional effects, just to name a few. This study shows in certain situations why restraints were chosen and the positive and negative impacts of using restraints.
The purpose of this evidence based practice is to evaluate the use of restraints in geriatric patients and the effect they have on their quality of life. Restraints can prevent patients from causing self-harm; however, we are decreasing their level of function which can affect their quality of life when restrained for a long period of