scholarly journals Impact of the physical environment of psychiatric wards on the use of seclusion

2013 ◽  
Vol 202 (2) ◽  
pp. 142-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. van der Schaaf ◽  
E. Dusseldorp ◽  
F. M. Keuning ◽  
W. A. Janssen ◽  
E. O. Noorthoorn

BackgroundThe physical environment is presumed to have an effect on aggression and also on the use of seclusion on psychiatric wards. Multicentre studies that include a broad variety of design features found on psychiatric wards and that control for patient, staff and general ward characteristics are scarce.AimsTo explore the effect of design features on the risk of being secluded, the number of seclusion incidents and the time in seclusion, for patients admitted to locked wards for intensive psychiatric care.MethodData on the building quality and safety of psychiatric as well as forensic wards (n = 199) were combined with data on the frequency and type of coercive measures per admission (n = 23 868 admissions of n = 14 834 patients) on these wards, over a 12-month period. We used non-linear principal components analysis (CATPCA) to reduce the observed design features into a smaller number of uncorrelated principal components. Two-level multilevel (logistic) regression analyses were used to explore the relationship with seclusion. Admission was the first level in the analyses and ward was the second level.ResultsOverall, 14 design features had a significant effect on the risk of being secluded during admission. The ‘presence of an outdoor space’, 'special safety measures' and a large ‘number of patients in the building’ increased the risk of being secluded. Design features such as more ‘total private space per patient’, a higher ‘level of comfort’ and greater ‘visibility on the ward’, decreased the risk of being secluded.ConclusionsA number of design features had an effect on the use of seclusion and restraint. The study highlighted the need for a greater focus on the impact of the physical environment on patients, as, along with other interventions, this can reduce the need for seclusion and restraint.

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 109
Author(s):  
Massoomeh Hedayati ◽  
Aldrin Abdullah ◽  
Mohammad Javad Maghsoodi Tilaki

There is continuous debate on the impact of house quality on residents’ health and well-being. Good living environment improves health, and fear of crime is recognised as a mediator in the relationship between physical environment and health. Since minimal studies have investigated the relationship, this study aims to examine the impact of the house quality on fear of crime and health. A total of 230 households from a residential neighbourhood in Malaysia participated in the study. Using structural equation modelling, the findings indicate that housing quality and fear of crime can account for a proportion of the variance in residents’ self-rated health. However, there is no significant relationship between housing quality and fear of crime. Results also show that fear of crime does not mediate the relationship between housing quality and health. This study suggests that the environment-fear relationship should be re-examined theoretically.  


2013 ◽  
Vol 756-759 ◽  
pp. 3590-3595
Author(s):  
Liang Zhang ◽  
Ji Wen Dong

Aiming at solving the problems of occlusion and illumination in face recognition, a new method of face recognition based on Kernel Principal Components Analysis (KPCA) and Collaborative Representation Classifier (CRC) is developed. The KPCA can obtain effective discriminative information and reduce the feature dimensions by extracting faces nonlinear structures features, the decisive factor. Considering the collaboration among the samples, the CRC which synthetically consider the relationship among samples is used. Experimental results demonstrate that the algorithm obtains good recognition rates and also improves the efficiency. The KCRC algorithm can effectively solve the problem of illumination and occlusion in face recognition.


1995 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-101
Author(s):  
Peter L. Nelson

Although the Tellegen Absorption Scale has been widely employed in recent years as a measure of personality Trait Absorption, it is argued that this simple score does not sufficiently discriminate true capacity for Absorption nor does it reveal the level of opportunity made for absorptive experiencing. This study operationalizes Capacity and Opportunity as two additional subscales appended to the Tellegen scale and, by employing the technique of Principal Components Analysis, five useful sub-dimensions are generated. Following on from this Author's earlier suggestion that personality Trait Absorption may be linked to cannabis use and depression, an exploratory study was conducted into the relationship of cannabis use, gender, self-perceived motivation loss and depression to observed levels of overall Absorption as well as to levels of Capacity and Opportunity for absorptive experiencing.


1993 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 469-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger A. Kendall ◽  
Edward C. Carterette

Experiments were conducted to explore the relationship between wind instrument dyad timbres and verbal attributes drawn from the musicological literature in order to compare and contrast results with studies using artificial stimuli and amusical rating scales. In the first experiment, all adjectives in Piston's (1955) "Orchestration" were collated and subsequently reduced to 61 examples. A checklist procedure was used in response to the dyad timbres to further reduce the set of adjectives to 21. The 21 adjectives were used in verbal attribute magnitude estimation of the 10 wind instrument dyad timbres. Principal components analysis of ratings revealed four verbal attribute factors, accounting for 90.604% of the variance: power, strident, plangent, and reed. Correlational analyses demonstrated an improvement in mapping between the ratings and perceptual similarity spaces over the procedure used in Part I of this study. The two-dimensional timbral circumplex was interpreted as having a principal dimension of nasality versus richness and a secondary dimension of reediness versus brilliance.


Author(s):  
Naoëlle Matahri

Based on the information provided by the operators, IRSN experts select and analyze different deviations presenting a possible generic nature which could affect the safety of power plants. Some of these deviations result in non-compliance (NC) with the safety requirements. To maintain an acceptable level of safety, an operator has to implement corrective measures for any situation of non-compliance with safety requirements. IRSN, the Technical Support Organization of the French Nuclear Authority, analyzes the different deviations to assess the impacts on the concerned NPPs safety. Based on the impact on safety, measures should be applied immediately or during the next outages, on a reactor or on several of them. The permanent corrective measures schedule is defined taking into account the “NC” safety impact. However, for some of the “NCs”, it can be difficult to define and implement swift permanent corrective measures, especially when the lack of compliance affects several similar units and requires a design change. This paper explains the French approach of deviations treatment and specifically the relationship between the Nuclear Safety Authority, the Technical Support Organization, IRSN and the Licensee, EDF during an outage.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristin Henry

<p>Patient falls contribute to unnecessary injury and incapacitation for patients and are also a major source of stress for the nurses caring for patients who fall. Hospitals are no longer being reimbursed for extended hospital stays related to injuries caused by patient falls and action is needed to decrease such events. Nurse staffing has been shown to play a critical role in determining the incidence of patient falls, with better nurse staffing decreasing the likelihood of a patient falling. The purpose of this study was to determine nurses’ perceptions of nurse staffing and its impact on the incidence of patient falls. The methodology included a short, self-administered survey developed by the researcher. Nurses answered 15 questions related to the number of patients they cared for, number of patient falls, and factors that could influence falls. Nurses who completed the survey reported caring for between 2-7 patients on their last shift and reported between 0-2 falls on their assignment within the previous three months. Nurses indicated that factors such as admission and discharge activity, the number of available staff on the unit, and the acuity of patients on the unit impacted patient falls. Further research is needed to determine the relationship between nurse staffing and the incidence of patient falls. Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) are in an ideal position to participate in research related to this topic as well to advocate for nursing’s role in preventing patient falls.</p>


Author(s):  
Ann Pairman

Although the design, layout and space in ECE environments influences children’s learning, New Zealand’s minimum standards for physical space compare poorly with other OECD countries and there is a paucity of NZ research in this area. This paper argues that the relationship between physical environments and learning is a ‘blind spot’ in NZ ECE discourse. In identifying why this blind spot may have occurred, aspects of the ECE sector’s history are described. In particular it is argued that the sector's status as the ‘cinderella’ of the education system has led to political struggle for government recognition, improved qualifications, adult:child ratios, and funding, and that these issues have necessarily dominated ECE sector discourse. In addition it is argued that historical disparities within the sector have meant that concerns about physical space are not necessarily shared across the sector. In describing why the relationship between physical environments and learning should be of growing concern, this paper argues that bulk funding and minimum standards for physical space, rather than pedagogy, appear to be influencing the design of ECE physical environments, particularly in corporate ECE which is the fastest growing part of the sector. The paper ends by challenging the government and the ECE sector to redress the lack of attention paid to the impact of the physical environment on children’s learning.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document