‘Because That's the Way It's Always Been Done’: Reviewing the Nurse-Initiated Rules in a Mental Health Unit as a Step Toward Trauma-Informed Care
Abstract
Acknowledgement of the effects of trauma in the lives of the mental health service user population is increasingly being recognised as an imperative for Mental Health services. 'Trauma-informed care' provides values to guide practice. Mental Health nurses are well placed to commence integrating trauma-informed care into everyday practice. This paper describes the process of reviewing the nurse-led rules in an acute inpatient mental health unit as one step toward providing a trauma-informed environment. Findings from questionnaires are used to highlight the applicability of the process to the underlying values of trauma-informed care. Consistency and transparency of rules is demonstrated as a nursing-led step toward establishing emotional safety and creating a trauma-informed environment.
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Enforcing rules can contribute to trauma and re-traumatization.
“Isobel ( 2015 ) states that enforcing rules can contribute to trauma and re- traumatization.”
From A qualitative synthesis of patients' experiences of re-traumatization in acute mental health inpatient settings (2023) · cites this paper as Isobel, 2015
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- Authors
- Isobel, S.
- Affiliations
- Sydney Local Health District (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Isobel, Sophie
- ORCID
- Isobel, Sophie
- Venue
- Issues in Mental Health Nursing
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2015-04-03
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 272-278
- ISSN
- 0161-2840 (ISSN-L)
- 1096-4673
- OpenAlex
- W1693736589
- Cited by
- 26
- References
- 26
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 4.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Issues in Mental Health Nursing (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychiatric care and mental health services
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Healthcare Decision-Making and Restraints
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Research and Theory › Nursing education and management
- Keywords
- trauma-informed care, psychiatric ward, psychiatric inpatient care, emotional safety, psychiatric nursing practice, service user experiences
- MeSH terms
- Hospital Units, Hospitalization, Humans, Mental Health Services, Psychiatric Nursing, Wounds and Injuries, Nurse's Role, Practice Patterns, Nurses'
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