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Mental health nurses' dispositional decision-making for people presenting to the emergency department with deliberate
Grant Phillips1, Marie Frances Gerdtz, Stephen James Elsom
1St. Vincent's Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Background:
There is no clear treatment pathway for people presenting to Australian emergency departments with deliberate self-harm.
Purpose:
To explore variations in mental health nurses' disposition decisions for patients following risk assessment for deliberate self-harm.
Design And Method:
A survey was distributed to mental health nurses. This survey comprised demographic items and questions in response to nine vignettes describing episodes of deliberate self-harm. Dispositional decision and reasoning were also sought for each vignette.
Findings:
Poor levels of agreement for disposition were found.
Practice Implications:
There was a lack of consensus regarding dispositional outcomes. This suggests a high level of subjectivity in decision-making which needs to be taken into account within clinical governance.
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