Improving patient care through implementation of nurse-driven restraint protocols

Nationally, much attention has been placed on the indiscriminate applicatio n and abuse of restraint usage. This was the impetus for health care instit utions across the country to relook at the policy, practices, and procedure s regarding restraints. Our health care system made changes to our restrain t policy, practice guidelines, and procedures in an effort to assure protec tion of the patients' health and safety while preserving their dignity, rig hts, and well-being. The mission was to pursue a restraint-appropriate envi ronment by restraining only those patients who were assessed as being at ri sk of harming self and to protect the patient or others from injury. Our ov erall goal was to reduce restraint usage. This article describes the curren t policies, practice guidelines, and procedures for identifying clinically appropriate and adequately justified situations for restraint usage. The fo cus is on implementation of nurse-driven restraint protocols to improve pat ient care. All efforts directed at improvements in restraint usage and mana gement of a patient in restraints has reduced our overall numbers of patien ts in restraints as well as significantly reduced risk of incidence for pat ients In restraints.