Psychiatric Care in Acute Care Units with Locked Doors: Nursing Care Providers' Perceptions and Experiences

Social distancing and the recent lockdown due to COVID-19 have increased the feeling of disconnection, isolation, and suffering in vulnerable individuals and have brought forward questions regarding locked acute care psychiatric units that cannot be answered by the literature. In Greece, there is no available research on how locked ward environments are perceived and experienced by mental health professionals. The aim of the present study is to illuminate nursing care providers' perceptions of psychiatric care in units with locked doors. Fifteen nursing care providers were interviewed and inductive content analysis was employed to explore their experiences of working in locked psychiatric acute care units. Negative and positive feelings about door locking did not appear to match the specific system of practice. Some participants described how locked doors influenced their professional role by placing emphasis on control rather than care while others regarded locked doors as a symbolic way of therapeutic boundary setting. Participants had positive experiences when they perceived their working environment as caring. The therapeutic benefits of locked doors were prominent when locked doors were perceived as "invisible."