Psychiatric Nursing Attitudes in Emergency Departments: An Explorative Study Among Italian Nurses

In emergency settings, nurses should have knowledge and skills to manage both physical and psychological diseases, including psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to explore the perceived level of knowledge among nurses regarding key topics in the training and management of psychiatric emergencies and, specifically, to determine any associations between the education level and work experience of nurses and their self-perceived competence in managing psychiatric emergencies and examine their knowledge of these areas, with a particular focus on topics considered most critical in the contemporary literature.

An observational, cohort, cross-sectional, and multicenter study was conducted from August to September 2022 to all registered nurses who were employed both in private and public emergency departments, using the "Snowball sampling" technique.

A total of 413 Italian nurses were surveyed. Significant differences were reported in item no. 2 (P = .016), "How do you assess your current knowledge of issues relevant to emergency psychiatry?" according to work experience; item no. 5 (P = .001), "Have you ever been a victim of assault by the psychiatric patient during his shift?" according to work experience; and item no. 9 "How often do you resort to the use of counseling/hospitalization in psychiatry wards?" according to nursing education (P = .008). Several arguments were identified as important for in-depth knowledge in psychiatric emergencies.

Given the rising prevalence and complexity of mental health crises presenting in emergency settings, there is an urgent need to integrate targeted psychiatric emergency training into both undergraduate nursing curricula and ongoing professional development programs.