Constraints and blocks to change and improvement on acute psychiatric wards--lessons from the City Nurses project

Recent years have seen sustained criticism and inspection of acute inpatient psychiatric wards, with the publication of reports and research leading to policy developments and a variety of efforts to improve perceived deficits. The City Nurses project seeks to reduce levels of conflict and containment on acute wards through the placement of expert nurses on wards to assist with the implementation of changes according to a working model of conflict and containment generation, based on previous research. Evaluation has shown significant decreases in aggression, absconding and self-harm by patients. However, in the course of working with the wards, various constraints and blocks to change have been identified and we describe these in detail in this paper. Analysis of the fieldwork diaries of the two City Nurses identified that change was hindered by limited staffing resources, problems with the physical environment and other resources, insufficient beds and the process of bed management, hierarchical ambiguity and multidisciplinary issues, the overdemanding role of the ward manager, and pervasive anxiety about the potential for serious untoward incidents and their implications for staff. We argue that sustained positive change in acute inpatient psychiatry requires these underlying structural issues to be both acknowledged and, if possible, resolved.