Physical restraints in the acute care setting - Issues and future direction

The pattern and prevalence of physical restraint in hospital settings have changed over the past decade. The challenge to health professionals who wis h to reduce or eliminate the use of restraints includes clinical, ethical, and legal concerns. Factors that influence health care providers' decisions regarding whether to use physical restraints include organizational charac teristics and systems of care, environmental characteristics, and specific clinical guidelines or protocols, as well as individual patient characteris tics. To reduce the incidence of physical restraint, hospital professionals need to develop and test feasible alternative practices using an interdisc iplinary approach that addresses organizational, environmental, and patient -specific factors.