The Relationships between Attitudes toward Seclusion and Levels of Burnout, Staff Satisfaction, and Therapeutic Optimism in a District Health Service

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between attitudes toward seclusion and levels of burnout, staff satisfaction, and therapeutic optimism. Staff at one district health service inpatient unit (n = 54) completed surveys on their attitudes toward seclusion and levels of burnout, staff satisfaction, and therapeutic optimism. Several moderately large correlations were found between perceiving the patients as feeling punished by seclusion and intrinsic satisfaction (r_s = –.45, p = .001), and between patients asking to go to the seclusion room and personal accomplishment (r_s = –.39, p = .002). In general, however, most correlations were small or negligible in size. The influence of nurses on the practice of seclusion was clear, with 72% of participants indicating it was nurses who most often make decisions regarding seclusion. Some participants appear to have a broad interpretation of when seclusion should be used, raising doubts about whether it is being employed solely as a measure of last resort. Given their high level of involvement in seclusions, nurses need to be actively involved in organisation-wide initiatives to reduce the use of this practice.