Clinical trial NCT05013411: Rethinking Observations in Mental Health
Official title: Rethinking Observations in Mental Health
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Vital Signs
Keywords: Nurse Observations
Clinical Observations
Lead sponsor: Oxehealth Limited
Sponsor class: INDUSTRY
Collaborators: name: Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust
First posted: 2021-08-19
Enrollment: 7
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Observational model: OTHER
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: Healthcare workers with experience of taking patient observations in inpatient mental health setting in the UK

Brief summary: To gain healthcare workers' perception of the current observations practices used in patient care and explore the benefits of using technology to enhance observations in inpatient mental health setting in the United Kingdom.

Detailed description: Periodic intermittent clinical observations are commonly used in mental health services at admission for risk assessment and then for the clinical management of patients.

Nurses follow these practices as routine care to ensure patient well-being. However, being observed may make patients feel uncomfortable and anxious.

The Department of Health (2006) stipulated for the practice of observation to be implemented in a manner that would enable patients to experience it as a healing and compassionate practice. This is apparently not always realised as there are reported differences on how patients are observed, and clinical data obtained.

Whilst this may be attributed in part to lack of or limited training on the use of observations, it can also in part be attributed to lack of a standardised approach to implementation and documentation of the outcomes of observations (Stewart \& Bowers 2012).This contributes to variability among healthcare workers in their interpretation of the outcomes/data of observations. Given that patients' care pathways are influenced by the outcomes/data of observations, it is critical to reduce the variability in the use of this practice. Doing so would lead to obtaining consistent and dependable data that reflect patients' mental state to guide their individual care pathways.

The focus of this qualitative study is to document how clinicians perform routine patient observations, the essential aspects of observations through a clinician's point of view and how can application of modern technology aid this process. This systematic documentation will capture the strengths and limitations of current practice creating a service provide based dataset to inform focused improvements.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Healthcare workers such as nurse directors, matrons, ward managers, nurses, healthcare support workers, including; nurse associates, nurse assistants and assistant practioners who work in inpatient mental health settings
* Healthcare workers with at least two years' experience of working in inpatient mental settings
* Healthcare workers who conduct or have conducted patient observations, and have used it for at least two years

Exclusion Criteria:

Students and clinicians in training who do not carry out independent patient observations.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Strengthens and Limitations of current practice of clinical observations
timeFrame: Day 1 of participation, during a one-off interview/focus group
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Views on use of technology in obtaining patient observations
timeFrame: Day 1 of participation, during a one-off interview/focus group
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: London
country: United Kingdom
facility: Ade Odunlade
Study officials:
affiliation: Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust
name: Ade Odunlade
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: