Nurses working in psychiatric care believe that patients agree to being put into isolation if they cooperate or remain passive. This is one of the main findings from a research report led by Caroline Larue, PhD, from Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine entitled “Qualité des interventions infirmières dans un épisode d’isolement avec ou sans contention en contexte psychiatrique: points de vue d’infirmières et de patients” [Quality of nursing care when patients are isolated with or without restraints in a psychiatric context: patients’ and nurses’ points of view]. Two experts from the Douglas, Myra Piat, PhD, and Director of Nursing Hélène Racine, Nurse, MSc MAP, participated in the study as co-researchers.

In 2002, the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux du Québec amended the Act respecting health and social services to ensure that restraint and isolation measures would only be used on an exceptional basis and as a last resort. These measures must also be reported in detail in the patient’s record and applied according to a specific protocol.

Health centres therefore reviewed their practices and implemented new protocols. This study examines the way that nurses apply these protocols before, during and after the isolation of a patient along with the factors that play a role in their decision to isolate the patient.

Twenty-four nurses from the Douglas Institute and the Hôpital Louis-H. Lafontaine participated in the study, which was funded by the Quebec Interuniversity Nursing Intervention Research Group (GRIISIQ).